Militants attack Kandahar prison with suicide bomb, hundreds of inmates free

Militants attack Kandahar prison with suicide bomb, hundreds of inmates free By Alexander Panetta, THE CANADIAN PRESS

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Hundreds of pro-Taliban militants spilled freely into the streets of Kandahar city after a brazen insurgent attack Friday night blew down the walls of a prison involved in Canada's detainee scandal.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the multi-pronged assault that saw Sarposa prison pounded with an explosives-laden tanker truck, rockets and suicide bombers.

Canadian troops rushed across town from their base at Kandahar Airfield to secure the area around the prison, where the inmate population included insurgents captured by NATO soldiers.

"We have troops on the scene right now," Canadian military spokesman Maj. Jay Janzen told reporters at Kandahar Airfield, the main NATO base in the region.

"We have established a security perimeter in the vicinity of the prison."

Just months ago, the Canadian government resumed prisoner-transfers after suspending them because of documented detainee abuse by Afghan officials.

Inmates at Sarposa described having been whipped, choked, and electrocuted in separate detention facilities run by Afghanistan's feared intelligence police.

The facility is now said to be virtually empty after the attack, and international forces suddenly found themselves scouring the area for inmates they had captured earlier.

Early Saturday, police official Mohammad Jamal Khan said more than 600 prisoners escaped. He said nine police were killed in the attack and that 12 were wounded. Eight prisoners were also killed during the assault, he said. More than 30 nearby shops were damaged.

The Taliban said 30 insurgents on motorbikes and two suicide bombers attacked the prison, used to hold both common criminals and Taliban militants.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told The Associated Press that militants had been planning the assault for the last two month "to release our Taliban friends."

"Today we succeeded," he said. The escaped prisoners "are safe in town and they are going to their homes."