Taliban frees hundreds of Afghan militant inmates

Soldiers from the Afghan national army stand guard near the body of a Taliban attacker who was killed during the prison in Ghazni province, eastern Afghanistan. Rahmatullah Nikzad / AP Photo

An Afghan security force takes position near the main prison building after an attack in Ghazni. Rahmatullah Alizadah / AFP Photo

Afghan security members stand guard on the roof of the prison building. Rahmatullah Nikzad / AP Photo

A total of 355 prisoners escaped and only 82 prisoners remain in custody in the prison, the Afghan interior ministry said. Rahmatullah Alizadah / AFP Photo

The Taliban, who launched a countrywide summer offensive in late April, claimed responsibility for the jailbreak. Naweed Haqjoo / EPA

Ghazni, Afghanistan // More than 350 inmates escaped an Afghan prison following a coordinated attack by Taliban insurgents on Monday, in the country’s largest jailbreak in years.

Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, deputy governor of Ghazni province, said that insurgents wearing military uniforms launched a well-organised attack early Monday morning that included using a suicide bomber to breach the compound’s walls. Four guards were killed and seven others were wounded, while three insurgents were also killed, Mr Ahmadi said.

The Taliban, who launched a countrywide summer offensive in late April, claimed responsibility.

A total of 355 prisoners escaped and only 82 prisoners remain in custody in the prison, the Afghan interior ministry said. Most were Taliban and other militants.

However Mr Ahmadi added that 20 of the prison’s most dangerous inmates had been transferred to another facility a day earlier after a fight broke out.

The brazen attack in the eastern city of Ghazni comes as the Taliban ramp up attacks on government and foreign targets despite being embroiled in a bitter leadership transition.

The raid is the Taliban’s third mass prison break since 2008 and marks a major blow to Afghan forces facing their first fighting season without full Nato support.

“This successful operation was carried out at 2am and continued for several hours. The jail was under Taliban control,” spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

“In this operation, 400 of our innocent countrymen were freed ... and were taken to mujahideen-controlled areas,” he added.

The Taliban are known to exaggerate and distort their public statements.

In the last major Afghan jailbreak in 2011 nearly 500 Taliban inmates escaped from a prison in the southern province of Kandahar.

The Taliban at the time said they sprang the inmates through a one-kilometre tunnel that took five months to dig. The government described that incident as a security disaster.

And in 2008 about 1,000 prisoners including hundreds of Taliban rebels escaped when suicide bombers blew open the gates of Kandahar city’s main prison.

Taliban insurgents are stepping up their summer offensive despite a simmering leadership succession dispute after the confirmation of the death of longtime chief Mullah Omar.

Mullah Akhtar Mansour, a trusted deputy of Omar, was named as the insurgents’ new chief in late July, but the power transition has been acrimonious.

Afghan security forces, stretched on multiple fronts, are struggling to rein in the Taliban as Nato forces pull back from the frontlines.

Nato ended its combat mission last December and pulled out the bulk of its troops although a 13,000-strong residual force remains for training and counter-terrorism operations.

Unidentified attackers on September 5 shot dead 13 minority Shiite Hazaras after dragging them out of their vehicles in the northern province of Balkh.

The men were taken from two vehicles in a rare fatal attack targeting ethnic minorities.

Afghanistan’s president the same day implored international donors for their continued support, saying the “wounded country” faced a host of security and economic challenges.

Donors have pledged billions of dollars over the past decade to reconstruct the war-torn nation.

But much of that money has been lost to corruption, which permeates nearly every public institution, hobbling development and sapping already overstretched state coffers.

* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse