TIME: Dead Men
Talking
Saturday, February 02, 2002
By MICHAEL WARE / KANDAHAR
Afghan commander Abdullah Lalai knew he faced a fight
to the death as he waited outside a barricaded
hospital ward. Inside were six al Qaeda fighters,
armed with hand grenades and a pistol, whose seven
weeks of defiance in the heart of Kandahar had become
an embarrassment to the U.S. and anti-Taliban Afghan
forces who controlled the city. But they had resisted
every offer of surrender, and now it was left to
Lalai and his American special forces comrades to
resolve the standoff.
The holdouts had been part of a group of 18 admitted
for treatment after being wounded during the U.S.
bombardment late last year. Most had escaped as soon
as they recovered. One had been tricked out of the
ward in December, another had blown himself up during
an escape bid in January, and a third had been handed
over after losing consciousness due to the infection
of his wound.
Now, six remained. And the fact of their freedom amid
the frenzied search by U.S. forces for pockets of al
Qaeda and Taliban resistance had become something of
a joke on the streets of Kandahar. Moreover, "the
Arabs" as they had become known had begun to win
growing, if quiet sympathy on the streets.
So, late on Jan. 28, the final showdown began. U.S.
Special Forces arrived at Mir Wais hospital,
bolstered by specially trained Afghan troops. Again
the Arabs were offered the chance to surrender. "They
would not do it, they said they would never
surrender," says Dr. Fazal Rabi Muneeb, who acted as
go-between.
The assault team blew a hole in a wall separating the
al Qaeda ward from an adjacent wing, and moved in.
But, according to mujahedin working with the special
forces, the first onslaught was repulsed by grenades
— some that detonated, others that did not.
For the second attempt, even the motley Afghan
fighters donned U.S. helmets and body armor. "I went
in first with a U.S. soldier," says Lalai. The ward
was booby-trapped from top to bottom. From one room
came a grenade. "I pointed to the American the room
they were in," says Lalai. Together they burst in, he
says, with him firing high and killing two al Qaeda
in an instant. "I shot one in the head, and the
other, near the bed, in the chest," he boasts. The
U.S. soldier dived low, pouring automatic weapons
fire under a bed where at least three more lay. The
raid left flesh and skull fragments and a severed
foot scattered around the ward.
The violent outcome was inevitable, judging from
written statements they sent to TIME in response to
written questions over the week preceding the
showdown. Weak and sick from hunger and their wounds,
these foot-soldiers of Osama bin Laden had lost none
of their hatred.
They refused to specify their nationalities. "We are
from Arab countries," they wrote. "That is enough."
Why had come to Afghanistan? "American cruelty is why
we came here," one wrote. "In our countries they are
punishing Muslims. The good example is like the
Muslims of Palestine. The American government is
supporting Israel and with the help of Israel they
are making Muslims under their heel, very weak."
Asked why they had declined to surrender to the Red
Cross or its Muslim equivalent, the Red Crescent
society, one wrote, "We never want to surrender to
these organizations that are under pressure by
America." Later, he added: "We will never surrender
to Americans. And the things that Allah has written
for our future, that will happen, whether it is in
the future or now. Enough!"
Another continued, "Our message for the Muslim world
is that Muslims know best why infidels punish
Muslims, and why they are so cruel."
In the days before the fatal assault, the al Qaeda
men's answers to TIME's questions became more rabid,
doomed sermons denouncing the U.S.-backed government
in Afghanistan and exhorting the Muslim faithful to
jihad against the American "infidels."
Finally, there was a note of defiance directed at the
U.S. "America wants many things and they can't do all
the things their hearts want," read the last note
received by TIME. "The things which Allah wants to
do, that is what will happen. Al Qaeda is mujahid and
Muslim, and you know that Muslims will be never
finished."
Hours later, its author was dead.