In 2001 as the US-backed Northern Alliance were advancing and overwhelming the Taliban in Northern Afghanistan, thousands of Taliban fighters surrendered.
The Northern Alliance was overwhelmed by the sheer number of those who surrendered. The group that just months prior was a rump alliance of militias making a last stand against the Taliban now had to deal with transporting and incarcerating thousands of militants, without the infrastructure necessary.
Desperate needs called for desperate measures, as a result of which over 400 Taliban fighters were imprisoned in the relatively known 19th century fort – **Qala-i Jangi**, a place where **the first American was killed** since the US invasion began. The CIA officer Michael Spann was killed while interrogating some of the prisoners, when the prison guards outnumbered 1 to 4 were overwhelmed by a Taliban uprising within the prison. The Taliban fighters, now armed, were besieged for 6 days, before having their basement stronghold flooded (not a metaphor) by the Northern Alliance and surrendering. The vast majority of the prisoners were killed in the siege with only 86 surviving.
Another case of desperate measures was the **Dasht-i leili massacre**. Hundreds of Taliban prisoners were loaded into shipping containers to be transported into the already overcrowded Sheberghan prison. Unsurprisingly, most of them died by suffocation, though it is alleged that some died by getting shot/executed.
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In 2001 as the US-backed Northern Alliance were advancing and overwhelming the Taliban in Northern Afghanistan, thousands of Taliban fighters surrendered.
The Northern Alliance was overwhelmed by the sheer number of those who surrendered. The group that just months prior was a rump alliance of militias making a last stand against the Taliban now had to deal with transporting and incarcerating thousands of militants, without the infrastructure necessary.
Desperate needs called for desperate measures, as a result of which over 400 Taliban fighters were imprisoned in the relatively known 19th century fort – **Qala-i Jangi**, a place where **the first American was killed** since the US invasion began. The CIA officer Michael Spann was killed while interrogating some of the prisoners, when the prison guards outnumbered 1 to 4 were overwhelmed by a Taliban uprising within the prison. The Taliban fighters, now armed, were besieged for 6 days, before having their basement stronghold flooded (not a metaphor) by the Northern Alliance and surrendering. The vast majority of the prisoners were killed in the siege with only 86 surviving.
Another case of desperate measures was the **Dasht-i leili massacre**. Hundreds of Taliban prisoners were loaded into shipping containers to be transported into the already overcrowded Sheberghan prison. Unsurprisingly, most of them died by suffocation, though it is alleged that some died by getting shot/executed.