[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/25/taliban-tunnel-jail-afghan-kandahar[/url]
[quote]
Afghan and Nato forces have launched a huge operation to try to recapture 475 prisoners, nearly all of them Taliban insurgents, who staged an extraordinary mass prison breakout using a tunnel.
Officials said the inmates had escaped through the tunnel, dug from a house to the wing of the prison where political prisoners are detained in Kandahar.
In an email, Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said the tunnel was 1,050ft (320 metres) long and had taken five months to construct, "bypassing enemy check posts and Kandahar-Kabul main highway leading directly to the political prison".
He said just three insurgents inside the prison had known about the plot. They helped ferry the prisoners out of the jail in an operation lasting four and a half hours.
He said that by 3.30am on Monday morning, the entire political wing of the prison was emptied of inmates. These had been ferried off to "secure destinations" by a fleet of cars the Taliban had organised.
The message, written in near-perfect English, crowed over the failures of the security forces: "The most astonishing thing throughout the operation, as reported by mujahideen informants, was that all the enemy forces inside the prison, which includes foreign invaders, did not notice the results of the operation even four hours later and hence has not released any statements.
"Mujahideen had also placed a martyrdom-seeking group near the prison, whose need did not arise due to the inaction shown by the enemy."
Amir Mohammad Jamshad, the head of Kandahar's prisons, told the Guardian the tunnel was a major undertaking by the insurgents, who were unable to use any heavy machinery because it could have attracted attention to their work.
Tooryalai Wesa, the governor of Kandahar, said that security forces at the prison had "failed in their duty", but strenuous efforts were already under way to recapture the prisoners.
"Some of the escaped prisoners have been recaptured by the security forces during searching operations, and huge operations have launched inside and on outskirts of Kandahar city for the rest of them," he said.
He also appealed to Kandahar residents to phone in tipoffs about the escaped prisoners to a special hotline set up by authorities.
Despite his insistence that the job of recapturing so many prisoners would be made easier by the detailed biometric records held on all the men, including fingerprints and iris scans, the breakout is a major blow to international and Afghan government efforts in the key province.
One member of Kandahar's provincial council, Hajji Hematullah, said that although some prisoners may still be in the city, many others would have made a direct line for the safety of the Pakistani border.
The freeing of so many hardened insurgents comes just before the summer "fighting season", and could potentially reverse some of the gains Nato made over the winter in intensified operations aimed at killing and capturing as many insurgents as possible.
It is also the second time huge numbers of prisoners have managed to escape the prison in just three years. In June 2008, the Taliban stormed the prison, using a suicide bomber to break a hole in a prison wall. The operation allowed 870 inmates, including 390 insurgents, to escape.
The breakout was followed by days of intense fighting in the outskirts of the city after the insurgents fled to areas where they were immediately able to take up arms against Nato forces.
The crumbling prison was extensively reformed and improved in an effort to prevent such an outbreak ever happening again.
[/quote]
God damn. What a massive breakout..
Holy shit that's alot of escapists.
That is not good. Not good at all.
I remember this happening last year
This is awesome, props for the talibans for being such a clever bastards as usual.
That's just crazy, they fell for the oldest trick in the book.
[i]For you blud, the Jihad is over innit.[/i]
[QUOTE=Raiskauskone V2;29418153]This is awesome, props for the talibans for being such a clever bastards as usual.[/QUOTE]
No it's not awesome because it's a lot better for the world if the Taliban are locked up than roaming the land.
[QUOTE=Raiskauskone V2;29418153]This is awesome, props for the talibans for being such a clever bastards as usual.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, props to the guys who kill our soldiers.
[QUOTE=lukepker;29418206]Yeah, props to the guys who kill our soldiers.[/QUOTE]
Yes, boo for them for fighting for the freedom of their country.
People that kill your country's soldiers=/=Bad people
[QUOTE=SBD;29419484][img_thumb]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qGavQhgXjfk/TVYrS9NV3zI/AAAAAAAAAPo/B0soHt8eP6A/s1600/mcqueen1.jpg[/img_thumb]
The Taliban wish they were this cool.[/QUOTE]
he's that cool he have "1337" on his license plate
-snip-
That is just awesome.
[QUOTE=Raiskauskone V2;29419922]Yes, boo for them for fighting for the freedom of their country.
People that kill your country's soldiers=/=Bad people[/QUOTE]
You have absolutely no idea who the Taliban are, do you.
Doesn't matter, only Steve McQueen will survive to the end.
[QUOTE=Dr_Funk;29419987]You have absolutely no idea who the Taliban are, do you.[/QUOTE]
An insurgency that came up from the remnants of the former government fighting the US occupation which leads to the US doing things like pulling innocent Taxi drivers out of their cars at night and torturing them to death or raping, lots and lots of raping.
USA!
USA!
USA!
[QUOTE=amute;29420298]An insurgency that came up from the remnants of the former government fighting the US occupation which leads to the US doing things like pulling innocent Taxi drivers out of their cars at night and torturing them to death or raping, lots and lots of raping.
USA!
USA!
USA![/QUOTE]
deFLECT!
deFLECT!
deFLECT!
E: or even better,
strawMAN!
strawMAN!
strawMAN!
E: It's like we can't mention the word "Taliban" without you trying to turn the entire thing around into an irrelevant attack on the US.
E: Because the debate on whether the Taliban deserve to be locked up is dependent upon the nature of the Taliban which has absolutely nothing to do with the US, unless Western imperialist agression etc etc makes you blow up a bank full of innocent people.
Great Escape theme on the Sitar.
[QUOTE=Dr_Funk;29419987]You have absolutely no idea who the Taliban are, do you.[/QUOTE]
Actually, know how the Coalition obtained most of those so-called 'Taliban' prisoners?
They actually offered bounties to local militia for capture of Taliban members. Considerable bounties. Those militias then proceeded to capture as many people who would not be missed as possible, usually targeting innocent foreign visitors, and being paid a little extra by the Taliban so that they would NOT capture any real Taliban members. Then the militias hand these people over to the US and the coalition, saying they're Taliban insurgents.
These innocents are then imprisoned indefinitely without due process or any semblance of a fair trial, and often tortured. I wouldn't be so quick to believe the news article to the letter.
I don't think you can assume that they're NOT Taliban insurgents, either. While that's a somewhat plausible theory, there actually needs to be proof involved.
[QUOTE=Dr_Funk;29421072]I don't think you can assume that they're NOT Taliban insurgents, either. While that's a somewhat plausible theory, there actually needs to be proof involved.[/QUOTE]
Maybe about 20 per cent are genuine Taliban ideological fighters. That's why the escape is a problem. The rest are either completely innocent or otherwise patriotic insurgents - which makes them deserving of POW status.
[QUOTE=Raiskauskone V2;29418153]This is awesome, props for the talibans for being such a clever bastards as usual.[/QUOTE]
Yeah let's hear it for the guys who kidnap little kids and threaten to kill their families if they don't blow themselves up for the sake of religion
If you have not seen The Great Escape I highly recommend. Sure it's dated, but fantastic movie none the less. This Taliban escape has an uncanny parallel to the movie.
[QUOTE=Jacknife;29420949]Great Escape theme on the Sitar.[/QUOTE]
Or a bunch of Taliban whistling it.
[QUOTE=Dr_Funk;29420925]It's like we can't mention the word "Taliban" without you trying to turn the entire thing around into an irrelevant attack on the US.[/quote]
Yo do realise they're fighting the US, right? I mean, that's not really hard to figure out.
[quote]Because the debate on whether the Taliban deserve to be locked up is dependent upon the nature of the Taliban which has absolutely nothing to do with the US, unless Western imperialist agression etc etc makes you blow up a bank full of innocent people.[/QUOTE]
The nature of the Taliban now, which is pretty different from that of the former government, is, y'know, dependent on the fact that they're fighting
the US
which is what we're talking about.
This isn't calculus.
[editline]25th April 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Dr_Funk;29421072]I don't think you can assume that they're NOT Taliban insurgents, either. While that's a somewhat plausible theory, there actually needs to be proof involved.[/QUOTE]
The US makes great habbit of arresting people who are innocent. As well as torturing them, killing them, abusing them, denying them right to see people for long periods of time, etc. This is US military 'justice'. Don't act like it works... in any way.
[editline]25th April 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Noble;29421117]Yeah let's hear it for the guys who kidnap little kids and threaten to kill their families if they don't blow themselves up for the sake of religion[/QUOTE]
I'm pretty sure the Taliban aren't fighting just for the sake of their religion.
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