Taliban offensive frees 870 prisoners

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-16  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

UNITED States-led coalition and Afghan forces killed more than 15 insurgents during a hunt for inmates who fled prison after a sophisticated Taliban attack that set hundreds free, while Afghan forces recaptured 20 prisoners, officials said yesterday.

The US said it couldn't immediately confirm that any of the 15 killed were escaped prisoners. Five militants were also captured during the Saturday operation, it said.

The provincial police chief of Kandahar province has said 870 prisoners ?? including some 400 Taliban militants ?? escaped from the Kandahar prison during a coordinated assault on the facility by dozens of insurgents late Friday.

The chief, Sayed Agha Saqib, said yesterday that Afghan police and army soldiers recaptured 20 prisoners, including seven former Taliban inmates.

The coalition said the 15 insurgents it killed were in a farming compound in Kandahar province and the combined forces used airstrikes to destroy it after insurgents fired at them.

NATO has said the prison break was a tactical success for the Taliban but would not have a long-term or large impact on the Afghan conflict. However, Afghan officials have warned that dangerous members of the militia were now free, and the prison attack essentially boosted the insurgents' ranks by 400.

In neighboring Helmand province, meanwhile, the US coalition said "several" militants were killed during an operation targeting a Taliban weapons smuggler in Garmser, where hundreds of US Marines have been operating the last two months.

Militants in a compound fired on the coalition forces, who responded with gunfire and airstrikes, the coalition statement said.

Troops found several weapons and 113 kilos of narcotics during a search after the fight. Garmser is a major narcotics trafficking point.

Also in Helmand, a roadside bomb killed the district police chief of Nad Ali, said Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, the provincial police chief. Another police official was wounded in the attack.

Afghanistan has seen escalating violence the last two years from roadside bombs and suicide bombers. The country now has a record number of international troops.

More than 1,800 people have been killed in violence this year.