U.S. forces watch hospital shootout

WASHINGTON -- U.S. troops in Afghanistan watched a shootout between the terrorist fighters and anti-Taliban forces, military officials said.

Eight al-Qaida fighters battled Afghan tribal forces Monday at a hospital in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. American special forces soldiers were watching the action because U.S. officials might want to interrogate some of the al-Qaida members, Pentagon spokes-man Lt. Col. Ken McClellan said Monday.

Afghan tribal forces captured one of the al-Qaida fighters at the hospital Saturday and turned him over to soldiers at the U.S. Marine outpost at Kandahar's airport.

That man, a Yemeni with a leg wound, became the 16th prisoner at the Marine camp and the 24th in U.S. custody, McClellan said. Eight other detainees, including American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh, are being held on the USS Peleliu off the coast of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, B-52 bombers repeatedly hit a Taliban or al-Qaida ammunition storage bunker north of Kandahar, said Cmdr. Dan Keesee, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla.