By Xinhua,
KABUL : Taliban militants blasted gate of a main jail in southern Afghan city of Kandahar and entered into clashes with guarding police Friday night, setting a lot of prisoners free, sources said.
The attack began with two huge explosions, one at the main gate and the other behind the jail, and was followed by fierce firing through rocket launchers and machine guns, local officials told Xinhua but refused to be named for the sensitiveness of the incident.
“A lot of prisoners have escaped,” one official said, without giving the exact figure. He said the militants opened many doors of the jail rooms.
The jail located in the center of Kandahar city, the provincial capital of Kandahar, a known hotbed of Taliban-led militancy, reportedly has housed political inmates, who were said to be suspected Taliban insurgents, and common criminals.
A Xinhua reporter from the city said the clash continued into late the night.
Some 200 inmates, mostly political ones with reported Taliban links, in the jail, launched a week-long hunger strike last month to protest against “treatment of abuse” and demand for “fair trial.”
The Taliban militants, fighting Afghan government and international forces since being ousted from power in 2001, continue to exert its influence through nationwide bombing attacks and ambushes this year.
The past three weeks have seen the fiercest militants’ guerrilla-style attacks across the war-battered country.