- NEW YORK (Reuters) -
Witnesses
have described how dozens of Taliban prisoners died of asphyxiation inside
shipping containers after surrendering to Northern Alliance forces,
according
to The New York Times.
-
- The deaths occurred while the prisoners were being
transported
in the containers from Kunduz to a prison in Shibarghan, Afghanistan, the
newspaper said in its Tuesday editions.
-
- Colonel General Jurabek, the commander in charge of about
3,000 prisoners, said that 43 prisoners had died in about half-a-dozen
containers, either from asphyxiation or other injuries, the newspaper
said.
-
- But various prisoners said many more had died in transit,
apparently basing their estimates on extrapolations from what they
themselves
saw and experienced, The New York Times said.
-
- The newspaper quoted a young Pakistani prisoner named
Omar as saying that all but seven people in his container had died from
lack of air. Omar estimated that more than 100 had died, it added.
-
- The newspaper said several other prisoners described
steep causality rates in their containers. The Northern Alliance had
transported
the prisoners after the surrender of Kunduz, packing them into containers
for the journey of two to three days, it said.
-
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