Taliban orchestrates massive prison break
An Afghan policemen takes a look at the opening of tunnel at the main prison in Kandahar, Afghanistan. (April 25, 2011) Credit: AP
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- During the long Afghan winter, Taliban insurgents were apparently busy underground.
The militants say they spent more than five months building a 1,050-foot tunnel to the main prison in southern Afghanistan, bypassing government checkpoints, watch towers and concrete barriers topped with razor wire.
The diggers finally poked through Sunday and spent 4 1/2 hours ferrying away more than 480 inmates without a shot being fired, according to the Taliban and Afghan officials. Most of the prisoners were Taliban militants.
Accounts of the extraordinary prison break, carried out in the dead of night, suggest collusion with prison guards, officials or both.
Following a recent wave of assassinations here, the breakout underscores the weakness of the Afghan government in the south despite an influx of international troops, funding and advisers. It also highlights the spirit and resourcefulness of the Taliban despite months of battlefield setbacks.
Officials at Sarposa prison in Kandahar city, the one-time Taliban capital, say they discovered the breach about 4 a.m. yesterday, a half-hour after the Taliban say they had gotten all the prisoners safely to a house at the other end of the tunnel.
Government officials corroborated parts of the Taliban account. They confirmed the tunnel was dug from a house within shooting distance of the prison and that the inmates had somehow gotten out of their locked cells and disappeared into the night.
Kandahar remains relatively warm even during winter and the ground would not have frozen while insurgents were digging the tunnel.
Police showed reporters the roughly hewn hole that was punched through the concrete floor of a prison cell. The opening was about 3 feet in diameter, and the tunnel dropped straight down for about 5 feet and then turned in the direction of the house where it originated.
But access was denied to the tunnel itself, and it was unclear how the Taliban were able to move so many men out of the prison so quickly. Also unclear was why guards would not have heard the diggers punch through the floor, and whether they supervise the inside of the perimeters at night.
Updated 12 minutes ago NewsdayTV's Pat Dolan reports from outside the Smithtown Highway Department early Monday morning as snow continues to pummel Long Island.
Updated 12 minutes ago NewsdayTV's Pat Dolan reports from outside the Smithtown Highway Department early Monday morning as snow continues to pummel Long Island.
