US Marines expand operations as Alliance claim to have crushed revolt

As UN talks on the future of Afghanistan began in Germany, US Marines expanded their base of operations in southern Afghanistan, sending out heavily armed patrols.

Meanwhile, anti-Taliban forces claimed to have retaken control of a fort today where captured al Qaida fighters staged a three-day prison revolt.

British and US special forces were in action helping the Northern Alliance put down the bloody uprising in the mud-walled fortress-prison outside the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

The Alliance said it had suppressed the revolt by this evening, killing the last of hundreds of bin Laden loyalists. A courtyard of the fortress was littered with the bodies of 60 fighters slain in the fierce battle.

As US Marines in Humvees loaded with anti-tank weapons and heavy machine guns patrolled the Afghan desert today, the United Nations opened a conference of Afghan factions in Bonn, Germany, aimed at paving the way for a broad-based multiethnic government to replace the Taliban.

To the west of the Taliban’s last stronghold, the southern city of Kandahar, US helicopters and KC-130s landed on the hardpacked sand of the base, where an American flag was planted at the centre of a compound of buildings.

In Kandahar, residents contacted by telephone said Taliban fighters appeared demoralised and fearful of attack. Streets were largely deserted, except for pick-up trucks of Taliban soldiers armed with rocket launchers and Kalashnikovs, they said.

‘‘They are not as active and alert as they used to be, and they don’t patrol as much,’’ said Mohammed Asan, a traveller from Kandahar arriving in Chaman, Pakistan.

The South Asian Dispatch Agency said US warplanes pounded Kandahar today, especially in the southern part of the city. The report could not be independently confirmed.

After negotiations with Pashtun tribal leaders on the fate of Taliban-held Spinboldak, a key town on the main road from Kandahar to the Pakistani border, refugees in a nearby camp looted blankets and food from humanitarian aid warehouses, tribal leaders said.

In contrast to previous days, there were no Taliban patrolling at the border crossing into Pakistan, and a farmer from Spinboldak who drove across the border said there were few Taliban soldiers in the streets and their main checkpoint was vacant today.

‘‘They roam around, but they don’t bother people,’’ Ghoar Noorzai said. ‘‘People are saying the tribal chiefs should take over and give us a chance to restart our businesses.’’

The Afghan Islamic Press, citing witnesses, said effective Taliban control of Spinboldak had ended. The report from the Pakistan-based news agency could not be independently verified.

But the Taliban have vowed to fight to the death in Kandahar. A spokesman, Mullah Abdullah, told the Pakistan-based news agency that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was still in town and in command of his troops.

US Marines set up their base yesterday, seizing the airstrip near Kandahar with no resistance, and quickly sent helicopter gunships aloft to follow up an air strike by Navy F-14 Tomcat jets on an armoured convoy of 15 vehicles.

Captain John Barranco, 30, of Boston, said the Marines watched the Tomcats launch their attack, then flew over the convoy and attacked it themselves.

‘‘There didn’t seem to be anything left of a useful military nature,’’ he said.

In daylight today, the camp seemed busy but calm. Mortar rounds could be heard in the distance as Marines ranged in their potential targets.

The Marines’ commander, General James Mattis, said more than 1,000 troops would soon be on the ground.

At the mud-walled Galai Janghi outside Mazar-e-Sharif in the north, fierce fighting raged during the day as alliance fighters battled the rebelling Taliban prisoners inside. US special forces and soldiers who appeared to be British were also seen moving in and out of the fort, some with guns fitted with laser scopes.

Dozens of bodies and body parts of soldiers from both sides were scattered about the sprawling fortress was littered with the bodies of Taliban and alliance fighters. In one courtyard, television footage showed at least 60 dead apparently Taliban fighters.

By the evening, the alliance claimed to have defeated the prisoners. ‘‘The situation is completely under control,’’ said Alim Razim, an Alliance official. ‘‘All of them were killed.’’

Alliance forces turned back journalists, and it was impossible to confirm the claim.

The revolt was launched on Sunday by hundreds of pro-Taliban foreigners, who were taken to the fort after surrendering from the besieged town of Kunduz. US air strikes backed alliance troops in the fighting.

Five Americans seriously wounded at the fortress yesterday when a US air strike went astray were treated in Uzbekistan and were being evacuated to Germany, said General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A CIA operative remained unaccounted for, another US official said.

President Bush said Americans ‘‘must be prepared for loss of life.’’

In other developments:

:: Shops began to open in Kunduz after authorities announced the city had returned to calm. But women still stayed inside.

:: In Kabul, armed Russian soldiers returned 12 years after they were forced to withdraw in humiliation.

:: In the northern town of Taloqan, a Swedish television journalist was killed in an overnight robbery. Ulf Stroemberg, of the Swedish television network TV4, was the eighth journalist to die in Afghanistan since the start of the US-led military campaign on October 7.

:: The Bonn talks - among delegations from the Northern Alliance, the former king Mohammad Zaher Shah and two exile groups were aimed at creating order where there seemed to be little.