870 Inmates escape from Kandahar prison

Buy an ad on DigitalJournal.com

One day after the US defence secretary noted that more American troops were killed in Afghanistan than Iraq last month, the Taliban's organized attack on the Sarposa Prison in Kandahar allowed the escape of 870 prisoners.

Afghanistan's deputy interior minister, Munid Mangal, said about 1,000 prisoners 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.

Of the escapees, 390 were accused Taliban members. Even NATO's chief spokesperson admitted the attack was a 'very successful operation' on the part of the militants. At the same time, they don't have much idea of where the inmates escaped to, with conflicting reports coming in shortly after.

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 eyewitnesses and officials said the militants fled on foot into pomegranate and grape groves behind the prison.

To make the matters even worse (or more predictable, if you want to see it that way), Sarposa didn't meet minimum standards for prisons; these standards are set internationally. Unfortunately, this has essentially jumped the Taliban's fighting forces by about 400.

I find it dumbfounding that the prison didn't meet minimum standards in Kandahar, which has been the theatre of the most intense fighting between the Taliban and allied forces; particularly when intelligence is so readily available, and the militant members have a strong understanding of the area - a distinct tactical advantage that the allied forces don't have. This attack comes as no surprise in the end, as the Taliban's former stronghold was Kandahar, and to house 400 prisoners there just seemed to be asking for attack. However, one could understand the situation - it was likely the closest jail that the allied forces had control over, and with the situation in the country seemingly getting worse by the month, what kind of safety could be expected if they tried to transport the prisoners to a more 'remote' location?

In my opinion, in the coming year Afghanistan is going to be as problematic and dangerous as Iraq. With forces stretched so thin (mostly because of Iraq), the Taliban is no doubt taking advantage and wreaking any kind of havoc they can. It's a sorry situation.