Hundreds of Taliban members 'escape prison'

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera has confirmed that some 540 Taliban officers and commanders have escaped from Kandahar prison via a 350 metre-long tunnel.

There is a previous escape from this prison two years ago.

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/04/201142525410649746.html

[Lasher]

1. Well that's going to set things back just a tad.

I think sympathetic Afghanis sometimes help them escape.

[madokie]

9. I know if my fellow Americans were being held prisoner by an invading force

I'd help them escape too.

[cliffordu]

17. Yep. I'd be there digging right along....

[Lasher]

18. We should just get the hell out today and immediately cut off every nickel of funding.

These forever wars are counterproductive.

[Arctic Dave]

2. System burp.

[Arctic Dave]

3. One of them must be a Steve McQueen fan.

I will wait for the movie.

[whoneedstickets]

4. Damn Netflix streaming video! That movie is a how-to guide.

I bet they watched a lot of Hogan's Heroes too!

[KurtNYC]

10. if they are fans of "Hogan's Heroes" they will all be back in bed

by morning. But hey...

"I know NOTHING."

[Arctic Dave]

12. You are now KlinkNYC.

;)

[SharonAnn]

5. 350 meter tunnel? That's more than 1,200 feet! WTH?

[Turborama]

7. The Guardian are saying it's a 1,050ft (320 metres) long tunnel...

Which is still extremely long...

Taliban tunnel breakout outwits Afghan jailers
Nearly 500 inmates of Kandahar prison disappear down 1,000ft tunnel – just in time for 'fighting season'

Jon Boone in Kabul
guardian.co.uk, Monday April 25 2011 09.06 BST

Afghan and Nato forces have launched a huge operation to try to recapture 475 prisoners, nearly all of them Taliban insurgents, who staged an extraordinary mass prison breakout using a tunnel.

Officials said the inmates had escaped through the tunnel, dug from a house to the wing of the prison where political prisoners are detained in Kandahar.

In an email, Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said the tunnel was 1,050ft (320 metres) long and had taken five months to construct, "bypassing enemy check posts and Kandahar-Kabul main highway leading directly to the political prison".

He said just three insurgents inside the prison had known about the plot. They helped ferry the prisoners out of the jail in an operation lasting four and a half hours.

Full article with more details: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/25/taliban-tunnel-jail-afghan-kandahar

[daleo]

16. They must have had help from a government mole. n/t

[Poll_Blind]

6. They are some hardcore dudes. Read about the 2008 escape as well.

PB

[pinto]

8. Taliban break more than 450 out of Afghan prison

Source: AP

Taliban break more than 450 out of Afghan prison

By Mirwais Khan And Heidi Vogt, Associated Press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – 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.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110425/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

[hootinholler]

11. HOGAN! n/t

[BOG PERSON]

13. hahahahaha

“This most interesting aspect of this incident is that the operation ended at 3:30 a.m., but the enemy did know about it until sunrise.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2011/0425/Taliban-tunnel-frees-Kandahar-prisoners-in-blow-to-NATO-and-Afghan-forces

[G_j]

14. "Taliban tunnels at least 480 out of Afghan prison"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110425/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

[BOG PERSON]

15. it's probably even more than 540

since the prison was built to house 1200 inmates.

[DeSwiss]

19. Well, that's one way to keep the war going.

- I've heard of a catch and release when fishing, but never for a war......

K&R