Pentagon says no U.S. soldier died in prison riot

The U.S. Central Command, which oversees the war in Afghanistan, declined to say if U.S. forces were in the fortress when the fighting broke out. But a German television crew at the scene of the fight taped a U.S. special forces soldier calling in U.S. airstrikes on the fortress near the city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

The U.S. soldier, who identified himself only as David, is shown on the video from Germany's ARD network. ``I don't know how many Americans there were,'' he says on the tape. ``I think one was killed, but I'm not sure. There were two of us at least, me and some other guy.''

A Pentagon spokesman, Marine Lt. Col. David Lapan, said later that no U.S. military personnel were killed in the uprising. ``All our military forces in Afghanistan are accounted for,'' he said.

Tom Crispell, a spokesman for the Central Intelligence Agency, which has operatives working with anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan, said the agency had no comment on the operation.

The Taliban fighters, who had been captured near the militia's last northern stronghold of Kunduz, carried concealed weapons and tried to fight their way out of the fortress, said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Dan Stoneking.

Both Culler and Stoneking said U.S. aircraft bombed the fortress during the fighting. Witnesses said the bombs hit an area of the compound where the Taliban fighters were.

The U.S. special forces troops in Afghanistan work with anti-Taliban military commanders, including Rashid Dostum, whose forces held the prisoners. The U.S. troops also carry radios and other equipment to call for and guide U.S. airstrikes against Taliban forces.

The Taliban soldiers appeared to have planned the battle, ``which appears to be a suicide mission on their part,'' Culler said. Most of the Taliban fighters were not Afghans and were from Pakistan and Chechnya, Stoneking said.

Dostum brought in about 500 of his fighters to quell the uprising, Stoneking said.

Foreign fighters in Kunduz had insisted on security guarantees following reports of summary executions by the northern alliance in Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul, the Afghan capital.