Fighters Feared Dead

WASHINGTON, Monday – Several Northern Alliance fighters are missing and feared dead following US air strikes on the northern Afghan city of Kunduz this weekend, Newsweek reported on its web site late Monday. Though the precise number of casualties has not yet been determined, Northern Alliance officials told the weekly that several tank crews, or at least 20 people, were missing and feared dead and six people were wounded. Newsweek also cited unconfirmed reports from residents of Kunduz that as many as 70 civilians had been killed in the bombing. The bombardment late Sunday – in which cluster bombs were dropped on the Kuna Kala fortress, a former Taliban base in central Kunduz – came just hours after the Northern Alliance claimed control of the city. Settling in the fortress for the night after seizing it earlier in the afternoon, more than 500 of Northern Alliance commander Aamer Latif Ibrahimi’s fighters were in the complex when the bombs fell, Newsweek said. Charred military vehicles stood outside the fortress, while the interior was strewn with twisted metal and un-exploded ordnance, the weekly said. Earlier , the Pentagon reported that five US military personnel were injured in US air strikes on a compound near Mazar-i-Sharif. AFP Ends