Unfriendly Fire

Nov. 26 — Only hours after they had taken control of the strategic northern Afghan city of Konduz, Northern Alliance troops say they were bombed by U.S. aircraft Sunday evening, in what may be the worst case of “friendly fire” in the Afghan war. The exact number of casualties is not yet known, but aides to commander Aamer Latif Ibrahimi said that several tank crews were unaccounted for, and dozens of tanks and other military vehicles were destroyed when U.S. planes dropped cluster bombs on their positions in the fortress of Kuna Kala, in the center of Konduz, late Sunday night.

NEWSWEEK WAS ALLOWED a brief visit to the Konduz fortress Monday afternoon (Afghan time)—shortly before Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing in Washington D.C. of another friendly fire incident that left five American soldiers seriously injured near the city of Mazar-e Sharif after a U.S. smart bomb missed its target.

Rumsfeld also told the briefing that hundreds of U.S. marines had landed on the ground near the Taliban’s southern stronghold of Kandahar on Sunday to establish a “forward operating base” intended to curtail the movements of Taliban and Al Qaeda forces around Afghanistan. It was the first major deployment of ground forces in the country and it marked a significant new phase in the war, with President George W. Bush warning today that Americans must be prepared for casualties. “Obviously, no president or commander in chief hopes anybody loses life in the theater, but it’s going to happen,” Bush said in the White House Rose Garden after meeting with two freed U.S. humanitarian aid workers who had been imprisoned in Afghanistan.

Rumsfeld described the fight for Konduz—the Taliban’s last northern stronghold—as “a long hard battle” in which “a lot of people were killed.” While many details cannot be confirmed independently, a NEWSWEEK reporter witnessed Aamer Latif negotiate a relatively peaceful entry for his forces on Sunday afternoon. However, fresh fighting broke out around 8 a.m. on Monday morning, when Northern Alliance troops under the control of General Mohammed Daoud moved in on the road from Taloqan.

When NEWSWEEK visited the bombed Konduz fortress on Monday, a large area of blackened and shattered military vehicles was visible, some still smoldering. At least one Soviet-made tank was had been ripped apart, and entire interior of the fortress was scattered with twisted bits of metal and unexploded tank rounds. All the indications were consistent with the effects of at least one cluster-bomb strike.

Troops from Aamer Latif’s forces, as well as civilians in Konduz, said that the plane or planes first struck the fortress at approximately 11pm local time, and returned to strike it and other targets around Konduz throughout the night. Bombs were reported to have fallen behind a factory, also in the center of the town, which Alliance forces say was used as a Taliban base. No casualties were reported in those strikes.

The Kuna Kala fortress had been used until recently by Taliban defenders in the two week-long siege of Konduz by Northern Alliance forces. But the Taliban had evacuated the fortress, a large hill topped by mud walls, by Sunday afternoon, when Aamer Latif’s forces moved unopposed into the center of the town, as part of the surrender deal he had negotiated with Taliban leaders. More than 500 of Latif’s troops had taken control of the fortress by 4 p.m., and had bedded down for the night when the U.S. aircraft struck. In Afghanistan’s cold desert nights, most tank and other vehicle crews sleep inside their machines, and as of Monday evening the crews from at least seven tanks—probably more than 20 soldiers—were reported missing. In addition, they said they could confirm at least six wounded. In a separate unconfirmed report, Konduz residents claim between 60 and 70 civilians were killed on Sunday night.

The U.S. attacks came despite the success of week-long Aamer-Latif-led negotiations with the Taliban, and claims that at least some Northern Alliance commanders had requested a bombing pause over the weekend to allow talks to take place. According to Faiz Mohammed Ibrahimi, brother and aide to Aamer Latif, another commander, General Bariala, had promised that air strikes would stop during the talks. Despite this B-52’s and other aircraft were clearly visible, and their strikes audible on the eastern front on Saturday and Sunday. (By Monday evening, the Pentagon had not responded to NEWSWEEK’s request for comment on the Northern Alliance claims.)

As news of the U.S. attacks on his brother’s troops reached Faiz Mohammed, he borrowed a NEWSWEEK reporter’s satellite telephone to call “Brian,” commander of a 10-man special forces team of forward air controllers, with whom he had recently worked as a liaison officer, and who he suspected were now located near the eastern front where most bombing had been going on over the weekend.

Both ends of the conversation were audible to NEWSWEEK as Faiz Mohammed asked Brian “your planes hit Kuna Kala in Konduz last night — why are your planes bombing our people?” Brian replied “there was bombing in Konduz last night.” Mohammed yelled over the satellite telephone, “but we took Konduz yesterday afternoon! Our people are in Konduz. You bombed them in Kuna Kala!” Brian replied, “We know there was bombing last night, but we didn’t know anything about your forces having entered the town.” (By Monday night, “Brian” had not returned a NEWSWEEK call requesting comment.)

It is not known whether the strikes on Konduz were directly designated with lasers by U.S. special forces, which would mean they could see the targets, or whether planes were simply ordered to hit the fortress, the factory, and other prearranged targets.

Some members of Aamer Latif’s command speculated that rival Northern Alliance commanders such as General Daoud had asked for the strikes in order to disable Latif’s forces, giving him an opportunity to enter Konduz and capture more Taliban weapons and vehicles. These suspicions cannot be confirmed, but there is no doubt that Northern Alliance commanders are intensely competitive when it comes to booty to equip their armies, and fiercely jealous of their reputations. Despite the fact that Aamer Latif negotiated the surrender, and his troops entered Konduz Sunday afternoon, both Generals Daoud and Rashid Dostum claimed that they had captured Konduz on Monday morning.

Faiz Mohammed said it was impossible that his fellow commanders did not know that Aamer Latif’s forces had moved into Konduz and the Kuna Kala. He said that at the final surrender negotiations on Sunday, representatives from every commander, including the supreme commander, General Fahim, were present, and watched as over 1,000 troops rushed into Konduz. They knew that as part of the agreement, Kuna Kala would be the first location in Konduz to be occupied by Latif’s forces. U.S. forces were not present at the meeting.

With Scott Johnson in Konduz and Arlene Getz in New York

© 2003 Newsweek, Inc.