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| Taliban free hundreds in brazen Afghan jailbreak Posted: 25 Apr 2011 05:12 PM PDT  Afghan jailer Ghulam Dastager Mayaar points to the hole through which the inmates escaped. — Reuters pic Tooryalai Wesa, governor of volatile southern Kandahar province, told Reuters 488 prisoners escaped due to the negligence of Afghan security forces at the province's main jail. He said the tunnel led to a nearby house. The Taliban said in a statement that 541 prisoners escaped through the tunnel, which took months to build, and were later moved in vehicles to safer locations. The prison, touted as one of the most secure in Afghanistan, is on the outskirts of Kandahar city. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's chief spokesman told a news conference that the incident, in which many Taliban commanders were said to have escaped, exposed serious vulnerabilities in the Afghan government. "This is a blow, it is something that should not have happened," spokesman Waheed Omer said. "We are looking into finding out . . . what exactly happened and what is being done to compensate for the disaster that happened in the prison."  . . . one at a time . . . — Reuters pic "No one managed to escape through the main gate, everybody went out through the tunnel. The insurgents worked on it for some seven months," Dastgir said. "The Taliban have planted bombs inside the tunnel and it is hard to investigate until the explosives are removed," he said. Taliban birthplace Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, has been the focus of the US-led military campaign over the past year, with tens of thousands of US and Afghan troops launching offensives around Kandahar city. In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan said it was too early to tell what impact the escape would have on plans to hand over other prisons to Afghan security control. A US State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, indicated that the push to transfer more security responsibilities to Afghan officials would continue. "This escape is a serious issue which the Afghan authorities are working to address," the official said, adding that both US and Canadian advisers helped train and mentor Afghan Central Prisons Directorate staff at the prison. Twenty-six prisoners were recaptured and two killed in a gunfight with security forces, Wesa said. Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Robbins, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said Afghan officials had not officially asked for help in recapturing the prisoners but Nato personnel who patrol the area are aware of the situation and "will assist the Afghan authorities in responding as needed". Reporters were taken into the prison after the jailbreak to view the opening of the tunnel in one of the cell blocks. Reuters photographs showed a hole, several feet deep, cut into the concrete floor of one of the cells. The hole, big enough to allow one man to climb down at a time, appeared to be connected to a tunnel. A large carpet in the cell looked to have been folded back to expose the hole. Police told reporters the insurgents had used car jacks to break through the concrete floor, which was several centimetres thick. The Taliban said the prisoners escaped over a period of 41/2 hours in the night, meaning more than 100 prisoners an hour would have had to crawl out through a tunnel barely large enough to fit one man. "Mujahideen started digging a 320-metre tunnel to the prison from the south side, which was completed after a five-month period, bypassing enemy check posts and the Kandahar-Kabul main highway leading directly to the political prison," the Taliban statement said. "They moved people in several groups. They had a comfortable period of time to move that many people. It's obviously very worrying with the timing around fighting season," said a foreign official in Kandahar with knowledge of the incident. Wesa said of the 488 who had escaped, 13 were ordinary criminals and the rest were insurgents. Collaboration? "It is either a case of the jailers being financially motivated and being bribed, or a case of them being politically motivated," said Waheed Mujhda, a Kabul-based analyst and expert on the Taliban. Justice Ministry spokesman Farid Ahmad Najibi said he could not rule out the possibility guards had helped in the escape. Whether the insurgents had all escaped through the tunnel or not, the freeing of hundreds of prisoners, including Taliban militants, is embarrassing for the Afghan government and foreign troops who have trumpeted recent security gains in and around Kandahar after months of heavy fighting, Mujhda said. The brazen jailbreak comes months before the start of a transfer of security responsibilities from foreign to Afghan forces in several areas — including the main city in neighbouring Helmand province — as part of the eventual withdrawal of foreign troops from the country. Under the transition programme, Afghan forces would begin taking over from foreign troops in seven areas this summer and should have control of the whole country by the end f 2014. While Kandahar is not among the areas listed for the transition of forces in the first stage, Yesterday's jailbreak raises serious questions about the readiness of Afghan forces to take over from foreign troops. The jailbreak also drew comparisons to a similar incident three years earlier. In 2008, Taliban insurgents blew open the gate of the Kandahar prison at night, allowing up to 1,000 inmates, including hundreds of Taliban insurgents, to escape. Days after that escape, hundreds of Taliban fighters seized villages in districts close to Kandahar and appeared to threaten the city itself, with the government sending more than 1,000 extra troops from the north as reinforcements. Nearly 100 Taliban fighters were killed in the ensuing battle. — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Yemen’s opposition agrees to Gulf transition plan Posted: 25 Apr 2011 04:23 PM PDT  Anti-government protesters in bulldozers in the southern city of Dhalea, April 25, 2011, demand the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. — Reuters pic Yemen's Western and Gulf Arab allies have tried to mediate a solution to a three-month crisis in which protesters, inspired by revolts against autocratic rule in Egypt and Tunisia, have demonstrated relentlessly for the end of Saleh's rule. As opposition leaders met in Sanaa to discuss the plan, Yemeni forces killed three protesters at separate rallies outside the capital, witnesses said. Under the Gulf proposal, Saleh can stay in power for a further 30 days before stepping down, and the opposition had earlier said it would stay out of a unity government. But yesterday, the source said the opposition coalition, made up of Islamists and leftists, had changed its mind. "After receiving clarifications from the Gulf side we agreed on the initiative and participating in a national unity government," the source said. The plan has yet to be formally accepted. An opposition refusal to take part could stymie the plan, and opposition sources have told Reuters the US ambassador had pushed the group to come on board fully in a meeting on Sunday. Seeing political allies desert him en masse, the Yemeni leader agreed in principle to a proposal by Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers to step down in exchange for immunity from prosecution for himself, his family and aides. But analysts say that allowing Saleh to stay on for another month could leave room for further trouble in the poorest Arab state long on the brink of collapse. The risk of Yemen descending into chaos is a major worry for Saudi Arabia and the United States, which fear an active al Qaeda wing could strengthen a foothold in the Arabian Peninsula. Clashes Protesters in Yemen remain unconvinced by the Gulf-proposed deal and have called for more demonstrations. In Taiz, witnesses said security men opened fire to stop protesters marching through the city to join a pro-democracy rally that would take them past a palace belonging to Saleh. "There were thousands in a march who came from outside Taiz, but the police, army and gunmen in civilian clothes confronted them, opening fire with bullets and tear gas," said Jamil Abdullah, a protest organiser. "They opened fire heavily from every direction." A woman watching the clash from her balcony was shot dead, and medical sources said 25 others were shot and wounded in the town, scene of some of Yemen's largest anti-Saleh protests. Clashes lasted for several hours, with heavy gunfire reported. Dozens were arrested, activists said. Thirty two soldiers were wounded after being attacked by opposition members, the Defence Ministry said on its website yesterday. In Sanaa, some opposition members, who asked not to be identified, said they did not want to be associated with a unity administration in case Saleh did not resign after a month. The arrangement proposed by Gulf states would involve Saleh appointing a prime minister chosen by the opposition to form a unity government made up of ministers from all sides. He would resign, handing over to a vice president from the ruling party. Further clashes broke out in the town of Ibb, where one protester was shot dead and a dozen were wounded by live fire as police tried to break up a march, witnesses said. Security forces also shot dead a protester in the southern province of al-Baida while trying to disperse a protest. Late on Sunday, electricity supplies were hit in Yemen after tribesman attacked a main power plant, an official said. The official said the tribesmen in Marib province, where the plant is located, prevented engineers arriving to restore full power. The cities of Sanaa, Taiz, Hudaida and other provinces in the north of the country are suffering reduced electricity because of the attack. — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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