Taliban Pulls Off Massive Prison Break in Afghanistan: Over 450 Inmates Freed
- Posted on April 25, 2011 at 8:29am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban militants dug a lengthy tunnel underground and into the main jail in Kandahar city and whisked out more than 450 prisoners, most of whom were Taliban fighters, officials and insurgents said Monday.
The massive overnight jailbreak in Afghanistan’s second-largest city underscores the Afghan government’s continuing weakness in the south despite an influx of international troops, funding and advisers. Kandahar city, in particular, has been a focus of the international effort to establish a strong Afghan government presence in former Taliban strongholds.
The 1,200-inmate Sarposa Prison has been part of that plan. The facility has undergone security upgrades and tightened procedures following a brazen 2008 Taliban attack that freed 900 prisoners. Afghan government officials and their NATO backers have regularly said that the prison has vastly improved security since that attack.
But on Sunday night, about 475 prisoners streamed out of a tunnel that had been dug into the facility and disappeared into Kandahar city, prison supervisor Ghulam Dastagir Mayar said. He said the majority of the missing were Taliban militants.
“This is a blow,” presidential spokesman Waheed Omar said. “A prison break of this magnitude of course points to a vulnerability.” He did not provide details on the incident, saying that the investigation had just started.
The prison break also weakens the argument that the international troops are making good progress in handing over more responsibility for security to Afghan forces, which will eventually enable the coalition to leave. President Barack Obama plans to start drawing down forces in July.
The Kandahar escape is the latest in a series of high-profile Taliban operations that show the insurgency is fighting back strongly against the surge of U.S. and NATO forces. Over the past year, tens of thousands of U.S. and NATO reinforcements routed the Taliban from many of their southern strongholds, captured leading figures and destroyed weapons caches.
The militants have responded with major attacks across the nation as the spring fighting season has kicked off. In the past two weeks, Taliban agents have launched attacks from inside the Defense Ministry, a Kandahar city police station and a shared Afghan-U.S. military base in the east. In neighboring Helmand province on Saturday, a gunman assassinated the former top civilian chief of Marjah district, where U.S. Marines started the renewed push into the south. The victim, Abdul Zahir, was also deputy of the provincial peace council.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said insurgents dug the 1,050-foot (320-meter) tunnel to Sarposa Prison over five months, bypassing government checkpoints and major roads. The diggers finally poked through to the prison cells Sunday night, and the inmates were ushered through the tunnel to freedom by three prisoners who had been informed of the plan, Mujahid said in a statement.
He said more than 500 inmates were freed, and that about 100 of them were Taliban commanders. The prisoners were led through the tunnel over four and a half hours, with the final inmates exiting around 3:30 a.m., all without drawing the attention of prison guards, Mujahid said. The insurgents said they then used a number of vehicles to shuttle the escaped convicts to secure locations.
Four of those who escaped were provincial-level Taliban commanders, said Qari Yousef Ahmadi, another Taliban spokesman
The highest-profile Taliban inmates would likely not be held at Sarposa. The U.S. keeps detainees it considers a threat at a facility outside of Bagram Air Base in eastern Afghanistan. Other key Taliban prisoners are held by the Afghan government in a high-security wing of the main prison in Kabul.
A man who Taliban spokesmen said was one of the inmates who helped organize the escape from the inside said a group of inmates obtained copies of the keys to the cells ahead of time.
“There were four or five of us who knew that our friends were digging a tunnel from the outside,” said Mohammad Abdullah, who said he had been in Sarposa prison for two years after being captured in nearby Zhari district with a stockpile of weapons. “Some of our friends helped us by providing copies of the keys. When the time came at night, we managed to open the doors for friends who were in other rooms.”
He said they woke the inmates up four or five at a time to get them out quietly. Abdullah spoke by phone on a number supplied by a Taliban spokesman. His account could not be immediately verified.
There are guard towers at each corner of the prison compound, which is illuminated at night and protected by a ring of concrete barriers topped with razor wire. The entrance can only be reached by passing through multiple checkpoints and gates.
An Afghan government official who is familiar with Sarposa Prison said that while the external security has been greatly improved, the internal controls were not as strong. He said the Taliban prisoners in Sarposa were very united and would rally together to make demands from their jailers for better treatment or more privileges. He spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
The area outside the prison was swarming with security forces – both Afghan and American – after the prison break. Many of the international troops were focused on a house nearby the prison – perhaps an indicator that it was the starting point for the tunnel. Police mounted a search operation Monday to recapture the prisoners and Omar said 13 had been caught by midday.
Asked how the tunnel was dug without anyone noticing, Wesa said only that the incident was still under investigation.
In the 2008 attack, dozens of militants on motorbikes and two suicide bombers assaulted the prison. One suicide bomber set off an explosives-laden tanker truck at the prison gate while a second bomber blew up an escape route through a back wall. About 900 inmates escaped, including 400 Taliban fighters.
—-
Vogt reported from Kabul. Associated Press writers Amir Shah and Rahim Faiez contributed to this report from Kabul.
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Comments (89)
SweetDoug
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:37amHo-oo-gan!!!!!!
Vat have yew bin up’to?
Report Post ȥƥ
V-V
RedManBlueState
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 10:41amSweetDoug,
Aw dude, you beat me to that one!!
Report Post »It’s time to send Colonel Klink to the Russian front!
Wolf
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:36amTime to bring our troops home from all bases around the world and let those countries take care of their own problems. So what if they kill each other off- it’s fewer problems for us. You’d think the green weenies would love them killing each other: more food and air for the rest of us.
Report Post »Apple Bite
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:35amWhy were they still alive? Holding prisoners that would threaten to kill you at any chance they got, you’d be better off executing them ahead of time to save yourself the trouble.
Report Post »EqualJustice
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:33amWHY DO WE WASTE our time, money and resources on these animals? GET the h*ll out of all those Muslims countries once and for all. Let them DUKE IT OUT and stop sending OUR military into slaughter. I just don’t feel any Muslim country is a JUST CAUSE.
Report Post »virgie morgan
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:31amYou can’t fight a war with political correctness whether it is a conventional war or a ideological war. Declaring war on terrorism is like walking outside with a fly swatter and declaring war on flys. I think the objective in Aghanistan was to prevent terrorists to get their hands on the Pakistan nuclear bomb….but even as we speak the terrorists are taking over Pakistan. We need to abort this mission. I don’t believe the lie that our soldiers “just want to win”…they want to come home and be with their families because they know they are fighting a losing battle. We cannot kill or capture every terrorist in the world. Bush was wrong to start this stuff up especially when he has been trying to fight a psychological war with conventional war tactics.
Report Post »MidWestMom
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 10:53am@VirgieMorgan
“You can’t fight a war with political correctness whether it is a conventional war or a ideological war.”
————————————————————————————————————————————————
Exactly!! You shouldn’t fight a war unless you plan to win it. That means wearing the biggest boots & having no hesitation about kicking the crap out of the enemy – 100% & then some. Sadly the US hasn’t done that since WWII. And it wasn’t just Bush.
Report Post »rose-ellen
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:28amkeepdreaming and railing about not being able to drop an atomic bomb on Muslims.We’re not at war with islam or arabs though the medias convinced you we are.No one forced you to join the military to go build schools in Afghanistan You joined cause you had visions of genocide dancing in your head.That‘s your problem Those Muslims are not going away just because you’ve been indoctrinated to want to annihilate them.You’re victims of your own american propaganda machine.good The politicians feed you red meet by alluding to not being politically correct implying they too want to drop an atopmic bomb on the Muslims.that keeps youall feeling like someone’s on your side ,meanwhile we’re talking to Talibamn and helping Muslim rebels in Libya.The government knows they ain’t gonna drop an atom bomb on Muslims but they keep feeding you that fantasy .They got you gung ho for war and now you’re not given a green light to “turn the place into a parking lot‘ and you’re angry.You’re manipulated pawns in the politicians and genocidal anti-Muslimmedia game.All you can do is talk about that bomb you SHOULD drop but its impotent railings and media fed fantasies.A billion Muslims in the world. They‘re not going nowhere and you’ll be hit with a hate crime if you lay a hand on one.The insurgents and taliban ARE the people of Afghanistan and have the right to fight back when invadd and occupied by terrorist americans.You don’t like their tactics. Too bad.They are the people of the country fighting with what they have.like all agressors you paint them as more vicious then any other previous fighters in war.Another tactic used to justify subjugation by agressors.We’re the agressors.9-11 was a defensive act by people fed up with our meddling in their countrie.Keep dreaming your media fed genocidal fantasies Gonna,gonna,gonna.Everybody’s gonna but dem Muslims do.
Report Post »sdeakins
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:31amToto, I‘ve a feeling we’re not in Alcatraz any more.
Report Post »Mahdi Al-Dajjal
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:29amThe Chinese have discovered a way to stop captured “criminals” from becoming repeat offenders. Now, I agree that more scientific work needs to be performed in this regard so that more data can be gathered and analyzed, but the Chinese have somehow figured out that a bullet fired from close range into the back of the head of the perp results in a 100% reduction in recidivism. In other words, once this procedure is ‘performed’ on the perp, with all the normal medical safeguards having being taken care of beforehand (think organ removal), that perp never commits another crime.
The islamic world has their own ‘procedure’ that they routinely perform on captured perps (and I’m talking, of course, after the holy islamic ritual of anally sodomizing the prisoner) is to lop off the perp’s head using a sword (or dull butter knife for non-muslims). It appears from the data that the *******, for all their backwardness and 6th century mentalities, have figured out that removing the head of the perp automatically results in the following benefits having been achieved: 1) escape rates go to zero; 2) time, energy, and resources capturing this same perp are never spent; 3) resources such as food and water can be better allocated; 4) and the propaganda value of the beheading videos is huge.
Just trying to figure out why the Chinese “method” and the Islamic “method” have been so successful.
Report Post »threecats407
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:26amWithdraw and terminate as many as you can on the way. In due time the savages will either kill or inbreed themselves to extinction
Report Post »freedomweiner
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:22amCommunist Manifesto : “Out of order….chaos”
Report Post »Darla_K
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:20amI agree with you Virgie. We have enough on our own plates right here in the USA. Let’s worry about our own country and getting it back on the right track in 2012.
Report Post »red_white_blue2
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:20amGee Barry, what’cha gonna do about this one..oh, wait for it…N-O-T-H-I-N-G!!…Same as he always does!
Report Post »kickagrandma
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:17amRead my lips, WASHINGTON, D.C. ~~~ Bring OUR troops home, N-O-W!
Report Post »tropicgirl
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:16amIf you listen to the soldiers, captured prisoners in our so-called “wars” are set free, from higher levels, within days after they are caught.
These people were let out. They work for us. Some more than others.
But, truth is, there was no one left to catch and no more justification for being there.
Another ugly manipulation. Ask the soldiers, they will confirm.
Report Post »Tyr
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:14amSadly, more and more of our troops are becoming disillusioned and are taking on a very Leftist/Democrat view of politics. Imagine being in a war that you are not allowed to win. The way they see it “at least the Democrats want to get us out of this hell hole.” Wrong or not, that is how they are beginning to feel about the Republicans and the Conservatives. Supporting the troops means giving them permission to WIN at all cost, as quickly as possible. If you do not support that, you do not support the military….period
Report Post »virgie morgan
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:08amThey need to bring our boys home and quit using them as pawns in the game this government is playing with the terrorists. Or else impeach obama and get someone in there who is actually against the terrorists and will go in big and strong and get the job done and get out. these terrorists know they have a friend in the whilte house who will appease them and their government and look the other way while they escape back out into society to attack us again.
Report Post »psst
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:06amAsked how the tunnel was dug without anyone noticing, Wesa said only that the incident was still under investigation
Let me interpret.”Well, ya see, it’s like this, we saw these Taliban digging rat outside the barb wire, but when we “axed” them what they were doing, they told us Soetoro ordered them to find more oil, but he said if our shovels hit a hard object, it was quite possibly the lock box w/ his LFBC that he forgot to remember where he’d placed it”
Report Post »psst
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 8:56amIs this a remake Moslem style of “The Great Escape”
Report Post »W/ alBin McQueenabad and Yassif Bronson Hussein.
JohnB2011
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 8:55amThis makes the US advisors look stupid. There are low depth seismic scanners available today that should be employed around every prison fence and along all country boundaries to detect these tunnels. It seems almost deliberate; surely someone in our intelligence once saw the Stalag 17 movie starring James Garner.
Report Post »Entropy
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 8:55amInside job big time. You can’t trust those Afghanis. That whole war is a PC disaster. They have to actually call in to get permission to smoke bad guys.
Report Post »tropicgirl
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:19amYou hit the nail on the head. The reason they have to get permission is that they want to be able to let the “bad guys” back out to justify the wars. Its a sick, misuse of our soldiers and they know it.
Report Post »mill
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:52amI agree
We need to leave the middle east.
We are not, have not , will not win over there.
Our soldiers could wipe the earth up with these people but our leaders won’t allow them to do so..all people in the middle understand is strength and power…they do not understand “lets all get along now sweetie”. they’re out to kill us.
. Someone had a good idea wit…A bullet to the head, or just cutting it off …stops everything immediately..
If we do not intend to win over there, we need to leave. I don’t think Bush should have gone over thre, but Obama has continued and expanded.. This is all poart of “one world order” .
Things should have/be done covertly. Go in take them out.
Report Post »When we , the USA, puts boots on the ground, we loose.
We loose because of our leaders and the media. We have leaders that really don’t appear to want us to win and we have a media that looks for missteps that they can exploit and hurt our people.
..we need to get out of the middle east, now. Instead we are expanding. These people don’t want help, they have been at war for thousands of years.
War is hellgo in kill ‘em , leave
….don’t go back and rebuild a country that has abundant resources with our hard earned money.
Hell we’re giving money to Libyan rebels, let NATO do that…oh wait we are NATO’s bank..
Kill em and leave
NickDeringer
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 8:53amThe wheels are coming off the Afghanistan bus. It won’t be long before pull a “Vietnam” style withdrawal.
Only problem is the Viet Cong didn’t follow us home and fly planes into our buildings.
Report Post »paulusmaximus
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 10:04amNo they didn’t in retrospect, their goal was to win their country not to kill in pure Godless hate!
Report Post »rose-ellen
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 6:00pmThey believe in God and they only hate people who invade and prop up brutal regimes or racist states like israel.You‘re dinking the kool aid of genocidal hatred against Muslims if you believe they kill you because you’re not Muslim.They kill you because of your policies towards them.But when you’re part of a genocidal medial propaganda campaign you have to dehumanize them.First claim like all genocidal people claim that the enemy is irrational and commiting crimes unlike all other enemies[the Vietnam comment]These people are different all genocidal people claim about their target ,they really are pure evul and we really are right to want to annilate them.[the hateful godless comment].You’re the one who hates and has been taught by your propaganda campaign to rationalize your genocidal impulses.Brainwasshed by the media. If justice were done not only the taliban but alquada would be sitting with the president making just peace agreements and america would be apologizing for its crimes against Muslims well as paying reparations.Maybe in a few hundred years when we‘re all secular humanist athiests people will look back at history and people will label Osama as the last defender not only of Islam but of all religionsThose backward people are sure defending themselves by whatever means necessary from our iunjust incursions in their lands No American has ever been killed by a Muslim because he wasn’t Muslim Any American killed by Muslims is a direct result of our political policies toward Muslims.We kill all the time for political reasons and they are no different.[we spent ther whole 29thcentury committing mass murder all over the world for political reasons].We finally get a little blow back and resort to nazi like genocidal propaganda because they committed the unforgiveable crime of upsetting the apple cart of american dominance where we could do whatever was in our interests with impunityThere should be no consequences for our acts of mass murder .Didn’t God tell these people only we have the right to kill?.They‘re not godless they’re probobly the original Jews.Their practices certainly follow the old testament and their language is Semitic.Saying you‘re a Jew maybe doesn’t mean you are if you’re Westernized and reformed your barbaric ways.Maybe they are.
Report Post »handsoffmystuff
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 8:52amWas this Tom, Dick, or Harry? Of course this was an inside job. No way 450 people just walk out across the desert.
Report Post »dcwu
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 8:50amOK Marines.
Report Post »More targets.
Lock and load.
rose-ellen
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 5:24pmThese backward primitives escaped from under the noses of the greatest military force human kind has ever seen; the terrorist american military:Awe-Some!
Report Post »rose-ellen
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 5:31pmBut you’ll be hit with a hate crime if you lay a hand on one here in the states or touch one of their Mosques now located in these united states.There‘s a billion of em and there’s nothing you can do about it.You started messing with them [propping up regimes and israel,military bases in their holy land etc, they fought back to defend themselves and now you act like they did something wrong.
Report Post »Al J Zira
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 8:45amThe president can say we’re drawing doww troops all he wants, we’re not going anywhere for a long while.
Report Post »mill
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 10:06amhe likes things this way…turmoil keeps American‘s eyes off of what he’s up to here. He’s destroying our country, dollar, peace of mind.
We are allowing this to happen . Our credit rating is falling, gas prices are killing us, the dollar is failing.
..what the hell is going on with this man we call president????
We are falling apart yet Obama stays in the middle east and is expanding our presence!
Report Post »jacobstroubles
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 8:41amOh…like this is shocking news… come on…
Report Post »123gone
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 11:00amI doubt there would be any further attempted jailbreaks if they imposed a mandatory death sentence, within 30 days, for all Taliban commanders.
Report Post »hempstead1944
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 8:34amOnly 450?
Report Post »joe conservative
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 8:41amBetween the Taliban, Al-Quaida, and the Muslim Brotherhood, we’ve got a major showdown coming in the very near future. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcRU63qCJkw This sums up who the MB is and what they’re all about.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 8:50amIndeed only 450?
I have to wonder how much funding they used to dig the tunnel, and in bribery of the local guards and commanders to allow it to happen. I can see the new movie in Hollywood being prepared by the left for history “The Great Escape 2: Death to America and the Infedels!!!”
So much for the vaunted security of the area, for if I remember right, this is actually the second or third mass escape from the afghan jails to take place.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 8:53amIt is interesting that this also happens on the same day one of our bases remaining with troops in Iraq, where the ‘hostilities are done’ according to the self annointed one; has been hit yesterday by a trio of Katush style rockets – just like those hamas and hesbula love to chuck into Israel every chance they get.
In Iraq the message is very clear “LEAVE!!!”
So as we are not wanted there anymore, let us leave. I sense a Tet style uprising may be in the works in Iraq itself.
Report Post »psst
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 8:59am@Snow.
Report Post »When I posted, there were O posts showing.
I posted about the Great Escape also. my post have not come up as yet.
Secret Squirrel
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:18am…….
Think that maybe that was an inside job?
Sure, I trust the Afghan government.
Snort, snort.
I’ve got an idea, get out now. Let the muslims have their rocks back.
Report Post »Cemoto78
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:19amThe guards were all bought off, the prison administration was paid off, these people only know one thing, bribery. We really need to get out of this hell hole and leave them to their own demise.
Report Post »TexasCommonSense
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 9:53amI wonder if it was a covert op. by the Obama administration. Could this fall under “reward our friends”?
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 10:17amSoon to be traveling to Lybia to pickup the weapons Barry and his ****** Brotherhood Boys are going to use on K-Dog, then turn on the so called moderate *******. Maybe Egypt and Syria first. Barry will welcome them at a state dinner, while having the Israels Ambassador shunted in by the side door.
Report Post »Brasil2520
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 10:41amBREAKING NEWS ! ! !
Hitlery just said she “America” will donate $100 Million to fill the hole.
Report Post »jackrorabbit
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 10:53amOne more reason to shoot first and ask questions after.
Report Post »drattastic
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 12:45pmBet the door was wide open for them.
Report Post »jeffyfreezone
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 1:24pmAt least if they’re at large our guys can kill them. They didn’t have that problem behind bars. I hope our forces see to it that every single one of them are shot and killed.
Report Post »jds7171
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 3:56pmJust another example on how the government sucks. They can’t keep control of your personal information, and they can’t even set up another government.
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on April 25, 2011 at 4:45pmDid BO order our men to look the other way while this happened??
Report Post »