BBC News Online: World: South Asia

Battle breaks out at Mazar prison

Hundreds of foreign fighters who had surrendered during the siege of the northern city of Kunduz reportedly grabbed guns from their captors and started an uprising.

They had been taken to the fort at Mazar-e-Sharif on Saturday after giving themselves up to Northern Alliance commander General Abdul Rashid Dostum, whose headquarters are located there.

It is as yet unclear whether his forces have been able to contain the riot.

Foreign fighters, who include an unknown number of Arabs, Pakistanis and Chechens, have been beaten or killed when territory has fallen to the opposition in the course of the current war.

But on Sunday, ousted Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbini promised that his forces would spare foreigners, and suggested they might be handed over to the United Nations for repatriation.