Also see: Nuclear Ring Reportedly Had Advanced Design
Karzai Threatens to Send Forces Into Pakistan
"4 Marines killed in Afghan road blast; US aids search for inmates" by Noor Khan, Associated Press | June 15, 2008
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A roadside bomb yesterday killed four US Marines sent to southwestern Afghanistan to help train the country's fledgling police.
It was the deadliest attack on American forces in Afghanistan this year.
The explosion occurred a day after Defense Secretary Robert Gates highlighted the fact that more American and allied troops were killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq last month.
Meanwhile, US and NATO troops helped Afghan forces search for 870 inmates who escaped from Kandahar's main prison on Friday after a sophisticated Taliban assault that even NATO conceded was a success for the militants....
Afghanistan's deputy interior minister, Munid Mangal, said about 1,000 prisoners, including criminals and hundreds of Taliban insurgents, were housed in Kandahar's Sarposa Prison when dozens of militants on motorbikes attacked the facility late Friday. Seven police and several prisoners died in the assault, he said.
One suicide bomber detonated a tanker truck full of explosives at the prison gate while a second bomber blasted another escape route through a back wall. Rockets fired from inside the prison's courtyard collapsed an upper floor....
Brigadier General Carlos Branco, the chief spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, conceded that the militants pulled off a "very successful operation."
"We admit it," Branco said. "Their guys did the job properly in that sense, but it does not have a strategic impact. We should not draw any conclusion about the deterioration of the military operations in the area. We should not draw any conclusion about the strength of the Taliban."
Yup, THINK NOTHING -- just let the PROPAGANDA SOAK into your head, "news" consumer!
Well, I'M GLAD there was a JAILBREAK! It means FREEDOM is what it means!
NATO was providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets to help track fleeing militants, Branco said.
US forces helped transport Afghan Army personnel to the scene "so that they could catch the prisoners who escaped," said US Captain Christian Patterson.
There were no indications that the militants received help from the inside, but the prison's chief official, Abdul Qadir, was placed under investigation for possible involvement, said Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai, a deputy minister at the Justice Ministry.
Afghan officials warned that the Taliban essentially boosted its force by 400 fighters - including several thwarted suicide bombers - because of the prison break, but Branco said NATO officials didn't think it would change the military situation.
A man who claimed to be one of the militants who escaped, Abdul Nafai, called an Associated Press reporter and said the insurgents had minibuses waiting outside the prison during the attack and that dozens of militants fled in the vehicles.
Other witnesses and officials said the militants fled on foot into pomegranate and grape groves behind the prison.
Hashimzai said the jail did not meet international minimum standards for a prison.
The Kandahar facility was not built as a prison but had been modified into one, he said.
"Plans are under way to renovate all the prisons around the country," said Hashimzai. "Kandahar was one of them, but unfortunately what happened last night is cause for concern."
But don't draw any conclusions, readers.
About those prisons:
Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/The First Abu Ghraib
Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/Perversion
Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/Dilawar and Habibullah
Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/Chamber of Horrors
Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/American Amnesty
Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/Bagram
Afghanistan Torture Chamber
The Globe's Weekend Movie
Also see:
Memory Hole: Iraq's Jails
Memory Hole: Camp Nama and Task Force 6-26
Occupation Iraq: New Torture Techniques Revealed
