Afghanistan recaptures 65 inmates; hundreds at large after escape

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: cnn

Afghan authorities said Tuesday they have recaptured 65 of the more than 400 inmates who slipped out of a southern Afghanistan prison a day earlier through a nearly quarter-mile tunnel dug beneath the compound.

A massive search operation continues to find the others -- many of them insurgent fighters, said the Kandahar governor's office.

The Taliban issued a statement taking responsibility for the escape from the prison in Kandahar, the Taliban's birthplace. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahed said digging the tunnel took five months. The escape took four and a half hours, he said.

The Taliban claimed 541 prisoners escaped. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said the number of escaped prisoners was closer to 470. The Taliban said 106 of the escapees were military commanders, but there was no immediate government confirmation of the claim.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/04/26/afghanistan.prison.break/index.html

[Bragi]

1. How many signs of failure are needed before we exit?

Two uncomfortable lessons could be drawn from the latest Taliban jailbreak in Kandahar: Either the locals were scared to talk about it, or they supported the insurgent plot. Neither option reflects well on NATO strategy in Afghanistan.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/sarpoza-jailbreak-in-kandahar-is-a-nightmare-for-nato/article1998438/

[Turborama]

2. Update: Afghan forces recapture 71 from Kandahar jailbreak

By MIRWAIS KHAN and HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press – 2 hrs 9 mins ago

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – The massive security breach that allowed the Taliban to spirit more than 480 Afghan inmates out southern Afghanistan's largest prison must have involved inside collaborators, the Justice Ministry said Tuesday, as security forces worked to recapture the escaped convicts.

Prison officials discovered early Monday morning that the inmates_ nearly all of them Taliban militants — were missing from their cells, and then found the tunnel through which they appeared to have made their getaway.

The Taliban said the prison break was five months in the making, with diggers starting the tunnel from under a nearby house while they arranged for inmates to get keys so that they could open their cells on the night of the escape.

Government officials started to piece through the details of the escape Tuesday and place blame. Justice Minister Habibullah Ghalib sent a formal letter to President Hamid Karzai acknowledging that prison officials or guards likely acted as accomplices but also saying that Afghan and international security forces should have detected the plot.

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110426/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan