Prison Break Frees 400+ Taliban In Afghanistan

bhkad · 06-13-08, 03:40 PM

Prison Break Frees 400+ Taliban In Afghanistan

According To Fnc

bhkad · 06-13-08, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhkad

Prison Break Frees 400+ Taliban In Afghanistan

According To Fnc

Quote:

Taliban attack helps inmates escape Afghan prison

By NOOR KHAN and AMIR SHAH – 51 minutes ago

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban militants staged a brazen bomb and rocket attack on the main prison in southern Afghanistan late Friday, blowing down the gate and helping hundreds of suspected insurgents flee, officials said. Many police officers were reported 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.

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.

Kandahar was the Taliban's former stronghold and its province has been the scene of fierce fighting the past two years between insurgents and NATO troops, primarily from Canada and the United States.

The prison attack came just a few hours after Defense Secretary Robert Gates told his counterparts in Europe that NATO members need to bolster their military effort in Afghanistan, where violence has been escalating.

Dramatizing his report, Gates said that for the first time, American and allied combat deaths in Afghanistan last month had exceeded the toll in Iraq.

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.

Witnesses reported that rockets were also fired at the prison during a 30-minute battle that began around 9:30 p.m.

A shopkeeper who sells vegetables near the prison, Mohammad Hiqmatullah, said he saw prisoners run out and disappear into nearby pomegranate and grape groves.

Ahmadi, the Taliban spokesman, 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."

Officials with NATO's International Security Assistance Force said they were aware of the attack but didn't yet have any details.

Last month, some 200 Taliban suspects at the prison ended a weeklong hunger strike after a parliamentary delegation promised that their cases would be reviewed.

Lawmaker Habibullah Jan said 47 of the prisoners had stitched their mouths shut during the hunger strike in May. He said some of the hunger strikers had been held without trial for more than two years and others were given lengthy prison sentences after short trials.

Earlier Friday, the separate U.S.-led military coalition said airstrikes were called in to support ground troops fighting insurgents in two Afghan provinces Thursday, killing more than 17 militants and a female civilian.

Separately, Afghan police said a Romanian soldier died in a Taliban rocket attack on the country's main highway. NATO confirmed the death of one of its soldiers, but declined to release the nationality.

The Associated Press: Taliban attack helps inmates escape Afghan prison

Binary_Digit · 06-13-08, 06:21 PM

Holy shiite, that's just crazy.

Allusionation · 06-13-08, 08:20 PM

Ironically, Guantanamo now looks like a good idea after all. If only because of it's location.

GySgt · 06-13-08, 09:20 PM

Isn't it amazing how GITMO gets to be referred to as a "Gulag" as our critics (in our own country) whine about their human rights and day in court, but nothing ever about prisons in Afghanistan or Iraq? Where's the idiot call for the lawyer army to swoop in on our prisons over there to free the "tortured" and wrongfully imprisoned?

The whole thing is a political sewer still lingering because the sheep need their fantasies.

Well, if fortune is upon us, most will refuse to surrender when we catch up to them.

Hatuey · 06-13-08, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GySgt

Isn't it amazing how GITMO gets to be referred to as a "Gulag" as our critics (in our own country) whine about their human rights and day in court, but nothing ever about prisons in Afghanistan or Iraq? Where's the idiot call for the lawyer army to swoop in on our prisons over there to free the "tortured" and wrongfully imprisoned?

Isn't Sarpossa Prison an Afghani prison run by the Afghani government?

rsixing · 06-13-08, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GySgt

Isn't it amazing how GITMO gets to be referred to as a "Gulag" as our critics (in our own country) whine about their human rights and day in court, but nothing ever about prisons in Afghanistan or Iraq? Where's the idiot call for the lawyer army to swoop in on our prisons over there to free the "tortured" and wrongfully imprisoned?

The whole thing is a political sewer still lingering because the sheep need their fantasies.

Well, if fortune is upon us, most will refuse to surrender when we catch up to them.

What do you know of the prison we run on the Bagram Military Base near Kabul?

Pull My Finger · 06-14-08, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GySgt

Isn't it amazing how GITMO gets to be referred to as a "Gulag" as our critics (in our own country) whine about their human rights and day in court, but nothing ever about prisons in Afghanistan or Iraq?

You don’t know who the actual POW’s are. IOW, the Administration is arbitrarily holding people prisoner without any ability to prove their innocence. Gulag. Doesn’t matter which country it’s in.

Quote:

Where's the idiot call for the lawyer army to swoop in on our prisons over there to free the "tortured" and wrongfully imprisoned?

American’s are an inventive people, I’m sure something could be arranged to have the ‘tortured’ innocent prisoners tried and released...

Quote:

The whole thing is a political sewer still lingering because the sheep need their fantasies.

The Administration refuses to obey the rule of law, and abide by its constitution. If they would just do their ****ing job properly, and stop acting like they aren’t accountable to its citizens, there’d be no problems.

Show us proof that everyone we have prisoner is guilty. You do that, and American’s who still hold the constitution as something, will shut the **** up about it…

It’s really that simple.

Peace

SgtRock · 06-14-08, 03:24 PM

Maybe its time to change tactics in this war. Maybe we shouldn't take prisoners.

rsixing · 06-14-08, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SgtRock

Maybe its time to change tactics in this war. Maybe we shouldn't take prisoners.

Rule of War and RoE dictates otherwise sarge (*said uncertain if you're serious or not).