Taliban attack Afghan jail, hundreds escape

Kandahar: Taliban militants staged a brazen bomb and rocket attack on the main prison in southern Afghanistan late on Friday, blowing down the front gate and helping more than 600 inmates to escape, officials said. At least 17 police officers and prisoners were killed.

The complex attack included a truck bombing at the main gate, a suicide bomber who struck a back wall and rockets fired from outside, setting of a series of explosions that rattled Kandahar, the country's second biggest city.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said 30 insurgents on motorbikes and two suicide bombers attacked Sarposa Prison and freed about 400 Taliban members.

Ahmadi said militants had been planning the assault for two months. "Today we succeeded," he said, adding that the escaped prisoners were "going to their homes."

Abdul Qabir, chief of the Sarposa Prison, also said hundreds of prisoners escaped, but did not provide an exact figure. He said some inmates stayed at the jail, which also held criminals.

Wali Karzai, the brother of President Hamid Karzai who is president of Kandahar's provincial council, said the prison held about 350 suspected Taliban fighters.

He said "all" the prisoners escaped, but also had no specific number. "There is no one left," he said.

Early Saturday, police official Mohammad Jamal Khan said more than 600 prisoners escaped. He said nine police were killed in the attack and that 12 were wounded. Eight prisoners were also killed during the assault, he said. More than 30 nearby shops were damaged.

Qabir, the prison warden, said the assault began when a tanker truck full of explosives detonated at the prison's main entrance, wrecking the gate and a police post, killing all the officers inside. He couldn't say how many police were killed.
Shortly after that, a suicide bomber on foot blasted a hole in the back of the prison, Qabir said.