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Taliban break more than 450 out of Afghan prison

Afghan and NATO forces secure the entrance of the police headquarters after a Taliban suicide attack killed the police chief of southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province, Khan Mohammad Mujahid and his two bodyguards, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Friday April 15, 2011. (AP-Yonhap News)
Afghan and NATO forces secure the entrance of the police headquarters after a Taliban suicide attack killed the police chief of southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province, Khan Mohammad Mujahid and his two bodyguards, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Friday April 15, 2011. (AP-Yonhap News)


KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) _ Taliban insurgents dug a more than 1,050-foot (320-meter) 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 the insurgents said Monday.

The massive jailbreak overnight in Afghanistan's second-largest city serves as a reminder of 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, around 475 prisoners streamed out of a tunnel dug between the prison and the outside and disappeared into Kandahar city, prison supervisor Ghulam Dastagir Mayar said. He said the majority of the missing were Taliban militants.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said insurgents on the outside dug the 1,050-foot (320-meter) tunnel to the prison over five months, bypassing government checkpoints and major roads. The tunnel finally reached the prison cells Sunday night, and the inmates were ushered through it to freedom by three prisoners who had been informed of the plan, Mujahid said.

He said more than 500 inmates were freed, and that about 100 of them were Taliban commanders.

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.

The governor of Kandahar province confirmed at least 475 escaped and said that a search operation is going on to recapture them.

``Some of the prisoners have already been recaptured,'' Gov. Tooryalai Wesa said. He did not provide further details.

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.

<한글 기사>

아프간서 탈레반 조직원 등 재소자 500명 탈옥 지하땅굴 통해 탈출

아프가니스탄 칸다하르주(州)의 한 교도소에서 탈레반 조직원 등 재소자 500명가량이 한꺼번에 탈옥해 비상이 걸렸다.

아프간 남부 칸다하르 교도소의 굴람 다스타지르 마야르 소장은 25일 재소자 476명이 교도소 밖으로 이어진 지하 땅굴을 따라 탈출했다고 밝혔다.

탈레반은 이날 성명을 내고 이번 사건을 탈레반이 주도했다며, 교도소를 탈출한 재소자가 541명에 달한다고 주장했다.

특히 이날 탈옥한 이들은 탈레반 사령관 106명을 포함해 대부분 탈레반 조직원들이며, 이미 차량을 통해 다른 지역으로 도주한 것으로 알려졌다.

탈레반 측은 조직원들이 5개월 동안 교도소 남쪽 외곽에서 시작해 검문소를 지나 교도소 안까지 320m 길이의 땅굴을 팠으며, 땅굴이 완성된 지난 24일 오후11시부 터 약 4시간 반에 걸쳐 재소자들을 대거 탈출시켰다고 밝혔다.

칸다하르 주정부는 이번 사건 직후 '다수의' 탈옥수들을 체포했다고 발표했지만 정확한 검거 인원 등 세부사항은 밝히지 않았다.

칸다하르 교도소에서는 지난 2008년에도 교도소 입구에서 탈레반의 폭탄테러가 발생하면서 1천여명의 재소자들이 탈옥한 바 있다.

(연합뉴스)

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