U.S. Strikes Back
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Al-Qaida fighter kills self with grenade
01/08/2002By KATHY GANNON
Associated Press Writer
 A guard outside hospital ward AP/John Moore |
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — An al-Qaida fighter killed himself with a grenade Tuesday rather than be captured during a failed escape from the hospital where he and several comrades had been holed for more than a month.
The man, whose name and nationality were unknown, jumped from the second-story window at Mir Wais Hospital shortly before dawn but was quickly surrounded by soldiers, said Mohammed Shafiq, a local commander.
``He stopped, looked around, saw that he was surrounded and took a grenade and blew himself up,'' Shafiq said.
The dead warrior lay on the hospital grounds, his body partially covered by a burlap sack. He had a white bandage on his right arm.
Another six al-Qaida men are still inside, Shafiq said. They have taken over four or five rooms of the internal medicine ward, and medical staff have expressed fears that they will wreak enormous violence if attempts are made to capture them. The entire area has been cordoned off. They are armed with pistols and grenades.
``We are worried especially if they see a foreigner,'' Shafiq said. ``They will start firing. There will be a big fight. They hate foreigners.''
Shafiq said that his men want to take the remaining al-Qaida fighters, whose nationalities are unknown, out of the hospital alive by allowing them to stay inside until food runs out. It is believed that their food supplies are nearly exhausted.
Anti-Taliban troops have said they expected the siege would be over within one week.
Nearly two weeks ago, two of the al-Qaida patients — loyalists of Osama bin Laden wounded or left behind in the rapid collapse of Taliban rule over Afghanistan — were captured when soldiers used the only doctor the men trusted to trick them.
The doctor called the men into another hospital room, with guarantees that they would be safe. They were apparently promised safe passage to neighboring Pakistan. When they separated themselves from their comrades, they were overpowered and captured.
They have been handed over to U.S. forces, who have set up a military base at the Kandahar airport. They are both Chinese, presumably militant Uighurs demanding independence for their Muslim-dominated northwestern province of China.
On Monday, the U.S. Marine spokesman in Kandahar, 1st Lt. James Jarvis, said that the Marines had been informed by Kandahar governor Gul Agha that two more al-Qaida men had disappeared from the hospital, and that only five remained.
The hospital is being guarded by soldiers of Agha's deputy and uneasy ally, Mullah Naqib Ullah. Shafiq said that Agha's men had been misinformed and that, before the attempted escape, there were seven al-Qaida men. Now, six remain.
Thousands of Islamic extremists from many countries went to Afghanistan to join the cause of jihad, or holy war, which was supported by the Taliban regime that ruled the country. Many were affiliated with bin Laden's al-Qaida network, which was given sanctuary by the Taliban.
Al-Qaida has been blamed for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in America, and U.S. military officials said Monday that they are increasing their efforts to smash al-Qaida and Taliban remnants.