sltrib.com
KILLING FIELD: Writer Lives To Tell About Taliban Riot
Thursday, November 29, 2001
BY DODGE BILLINGSLEY
SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE
Editor's Note: Billingsley is The Salt Lake Tribune's correspondent in Afghanistan. He offers this harrowing first-person account of the Taliban prison riot that occurred this week.
MAZAR-E SHARIF, Afghanistan -- We took a taxi to the prison fortress and asked it to wait. Alex Perry from Time magazine and I had arrived at Qalai Janghi, a few miles west of here, expecting to observe the aftermath of the previous day's fighting. Instead, we stepped into the middle of a raging battle between foreign Taliban POWs and Northern Alliance soldiers.
My first clue of trouble was when the rockets shrieked over our heads hitting a couple of hundred yards behind us.
Alex and I took cover behind a tree, but we still seemed to be drawing a lot of fire even though we were 300 yards from the fortress walls. We decided to take our chances with the Northern Alliance soldiers on the walls. Despite orders that journalists be kept well back of the actual fighting, we scaled the earthen embankment and entered the northeast section of the fortress's courtyard. About 50 alliance soldiers were directing constant fire on Taliban positions at the southern end of the compound.
A dead soldier lay next to the single T-62 Soviet tank that was firing away. I ncoming rocket rounds continued to whiz overhead. Bullets cracked nearby. At one point, shrapnel harmlessly bounced off my shoe.
The firefight had increased; we were pinned down. Choosing a safer portion of the wall, we retreated to the ground, reaching our waiting taxi in time to see U.S. special forces and 10th Mountain Division troops arrive. They called in an airstrike against the Taliban-held section of the fort.
Then something went horribly wrong.
The U.S. bombs missed the southern Taliban section, landing instead on the north wall, our former position. The impact inflicted many alliance and U.S. casualties. Five people had to be assisted out of the fortress. The Taliban, however, remained unscathed.
We returned to the relative safety of Mazar-e Sharif, and U.S. gunships pounded the fortress for most of the night. I thought the Taliban were finished.
Alex and I returned to the prison as dozens of vehicles delivered alliance soldiers. At noon, the two tanks exited the main gate. Their drivers reported the battle was over.
Moments later, there was a hail of gunfire from within the fort. As I looked for a way back inside the fort, a friendly Northern Alliance soldier waved me toward him and I climbed over the embankment and dropped inside.
The battle was not over. Dozens of fighters were crouching as they scanned for Taliban targets. Occasionally, a Taliban would show himself and gunfire would rain down on him. I lay between two machine-gunners.
There were bodies everywhere. At one point, I was up against the wall of a house in the compound's center, a foot from a basement window. Alliance soldiers swung me around, motioning to the danger of Taliban soldiers nearby as they opened fire through the window.
As we ran for cover, the Taliban found us at the corner of the building. Bullets scattered everywhere. We were forced to run through the field strewn with bodies of Taliban and Northern Alliance soldiers. A soldier running with us was shot in the leg.
A tank was finally brought into the courtyard to seize control of the standoff. A couple of hours later, the Taliban were eliminated. It was a frightening yet exhilarating experience. Surveying the killing field Wednesday was sobering. I was thankful.
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