Red Cross carry bodies from fortress

The Red Cross today carried out the bodies of Taliban captives killed during a violent three day uprising that devastated the fortress where they had been held.

Walls were demolished and windows shattered, while a dormant mortar shells exploded without warning.

General Rashid Dostum, a senior Northern Alliance commander, warned journalists to stay away from the southern section of the fort where the prisoners had been held, including a field with the bodies of about 50 fighters whose hands had been tied behind their backs with black scarves. Dostum said there could still be dangerous Taliban fighters alive among the corpses.

Red Cross workers wearing rubber gloves loaded corpses onto trailers attached to tractors. The vehicles could not make their way out of the fort until pine trees damaged in the fighting were cleared away from the road.

The scene at the Qalai Janghi complex was one of almost complete devastation after heavy fighting erupted on Sunday when hundreds of Pakistanis, Chechens, Arabs and other non-Afghans, who had fought with the Taliban, were brought to the fortress after the weekend surrender of Kunduz, the Islamic militia’s last stronghold in the north.

The rebellion was brought under control yesterday following heavy US air strikes and coordinated by US and British special forces, who took part in the battle alongside Northern Alliance forces. Five US soldiers were seriously wounded on Monday when a US bomb went astray, and a CIA operative was also feared dead in the battle, US military officials said.

One photographer saw a field of about 50 bodies yesterday, laid out in the southern part of the fort. Northern Alliance fighters were cutting the scarves from the corpses with knives and scissors. At least one fighter pried gold fillings from a corpse.

General Dostum denied his forces had tied the hands of the prisoners behind their backs.

’’We did not tie them. We brought them here to be safer,’’ Dostum said.

’’We behaved brotherly with them,’’ Dostum said. ‘‘We treated prisoners according to human rights.’’

Dostum claimed the revolt started following a grenade attack by Taliban prisoners that killed two of his best generals on Saturday. Another general was sent on Sunday to assure the prisoners would be treated well.

’’But they once again attacked my general,’’ Dostum said. More grenades were thrown, then the Taliban fighters seized more weapons and attacked towers in the fort, which is Dostum’s headquarters.

Dostum warned yesterday that there were ‘‘two dangerous people’’ still at large. ‘‘They may be lying among the corpses. They are suicidal people and one can expect anything from them,’’ he said.

The circumstances of the revolt, however, remained unclear.

Shabudin, a Northern Alliance fighter, said his comrades had been tying the hands of some Taliban fighters who were believed to be Arabs. Shabudin said during some Taliban fighters grabbed guns and began shooting.

Northern Alliance fighters wandered among corpses today, both of members of the Taliban and their own side.

Yesterday, US military officials said 30 to 40 men had been holding out in the sprawling Qalai Janghi complex, 10 miles from the town of Mazar-e-Sharif.

After initially turning back journalists, alliance troops opened the prison to the media today.

Nearby a dead Taliban soldier laid in the dust with his arms outstretched toward the sky. Other victims, and even a horse, had been blown apart.

Dostum, dressed in a flowing brown robe and a black leather jacket, declined to say how many Taliban had been killed.

However, he said 30 of his officers had died and another 200 alliance troops had been injured. Previously, the alliance said as many as 50 of its personnel had been killed.

Simon Brooks, the chief of an international Red Cross delegation, declined to estimate the death toll. He said Red Cross officials had been at the fort on Sunday trying to get information on prisoners. ‘‘We had no suspicions’’ that the situation was about to go out of control, Brooks said.

In London Amnesty International has called for an inquiry into the uprising.

Dostum said the Taliban staged the revolt despite repeated pleas by his officers not to resist. Dostum said his forces were now holding another 6,000 Taliban prisoners at the nearby location of Sheberghan.