WASHINGTON, Nov 25: A bloody prison revolt on Sunday by hundreds of mostly foreign fighters captured in Afghanistan caused the first US combat death there when an American adviser was trapped in the fighting, according to a Time magazine reporter who witnessed the uprising.

About a dozen US and British commandos were fighting alongside the Northern Alliance troops trying to quell the uprising, guiding US aircraft in bombing the prison near Mazar-i-Sharif, Alex Perry of Time magazine reported.

A US commando wearing an air force uniform was killed inside the prison and another was trapped inside, Perry said.

Perry, who was outside the fort when the revolt began, told the newsweekly the fighting began after journalists visited the several hundred mainly Arab, Pakistani and Chechen militants being held at an ancient fort in Qala-e-Jangi, 10 kilometres west of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Some of the prisoners, who had surrendered on Saturday, jumped on the journalists and nearby guards, taking their weapons and driving the guards out of part of the prison.

“It was probably the British journalist (that set them off),” Perry said. “It’s merely the sight of a Western face. They’re here to fight a jihad; they see a western face; they assume that’s who they’ve come to get.”

The two Americans were trapped inside the fort in the revolt, Perry said. Other US and British commandos arrived by jeep and began directing airstrikes on the fort and advising alliance military leaders in efforts to regain control.

“The mission by the Americans and Northern Alliance is to kill every single one of them now,” said Perry, who added he saw dead Taliban fighters outside the fort who had been shot between the eyes.—AFP