Word: rashid
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...commanders in Mazar-i-Sharif knew what was coming, they were taken by surprise. As dawn came Saturday, word spread that the besieged Taliban had broken out of its last northern refuge, Kunduz city to the east, and was advancing on Mazar, attacking security posts as it moved. General Rashid Dostum called his fellow commanders to a hasty meeting as Alliance fighters converged on the dusty square outside, readying their pickups and rocket launchers for battle. A small unit of American special forces arrived, and their commander slipped inside. A few minutes later, the Alliance chiefs jumped into their jeeps...
...bright, warm Saturday, 300 Taliban soldiers who had fled the American bombardment of Kunduz, their last stronghold in the north of Afghanistan, laid down their weapons in the desert a few miles to the north of Mazar-i-Sharif. They surrendered to Northern Alliance General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who crowed that his forces had achieved a "great victory" as the pows were herded 50 at a time onto flatbed trucks...
...have been triggered by the scale of the carnage, by reports alleging massacres of captured Taliban fighters in other centers and by reports from a number of Western journalists who claim to have seen a number Taliban corpses with their hands tied behind their backs. Alliance leader General Rashid Dostum insists his men never tied up the prisoners. And both he and U.S. and British officials insist that what transpired at Qalai Janghi was a pitched battle in which the prisoners had elected to die fighting, leaving the anti-Taliban forces no choice but to eliminate them as swiftly...
...prisoners at Kala-i-Jangi were primarily foreign Taliban volunteers who had surrendered Saturday to the forces of Northern Alliance commander General Rashid Dostum. They had been taken to the fortress outside Mazar-i-Sharif for questioning to determine whether they had links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. On Sunday, the Taliban prisoners overpowered their guards and seized weapons from the fort's armory, taking over the southwest corner and exchanging fire with Northern Alliance soldiers both inside and outside the compound. Two Americans were trapped inside; one of them, CIA officer Spann, was quickly killed, witnesses...
...Alliance, of course, is far from monolithic, and although its prefers to be known as the "United Front" is not exactly united on just who should govern Afghanistan and how. There has been obvious battlefield competition between Tajik militias loyal to Rabbani and those of Uzbek warlord G eneral Rashid Dostum, while the Alliance's ethnic Hazaras even marched on Kabul to stake their own claim on power when the Tajik forces seized the city. And the Alliance's Uzbek and Hazara leaders have shown little enthusiasm for bringing back Rabbani. Making facts on the ground