Taliban stages brazen attack on U.S. base

[redtanker]

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AP) -- A group of 75 Taliban militants tried to overrun a U.S.-led coalition base in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, a rare frontal attack that left more than 20 militants dead, the coalition said in a statement

The insurgents attacked Firebase Anaconda from three sides, using gunfire, grenades and 107 mm rockets, the coalition said. A joint Afghan-U.S. force repelled the attack with mortars, machine guns and air support.

"Almost two dozen insurgents were confirmed killed in the attack," the statement said. Two girls and two Afghan soldiers were wounded during the fight in Uruzgan province, it said.

A firebase like Anaconda is usually a remote outpost staffed by as few as several dozen soldiers.

"The inability of the insurgent forces to inflict any severe damage on Firebase Anaconda, while being simultaneously decimated in the process, should be a clear indication of the ineffectiveness of their fighters," said Army Capt. Vanessa R. Bowman, a coalition spokeswoman.

A direct attack on a U.S. or NATO base by insurgents on foot is relatively rare. More often insurgents fire rockets at bases and flee. Military officials say that Taliban fighters know they can't match Western militaries in a heads-up battle, which leads the insurgents to more often rely on roadside and suicide bombs.

Meanwhile, South Korean officials and Taliban leaders were expected to agree Tuesday on a meeting place to negotiate the release of 21 South Korean hostages, an Afghan politician said.

[redtanker]

Anyone find more about this?

[conlor]

Only two dozen?

[redtanker]

The rest RAN

[Snowden]

Hundreds of Taliban escape in attack on Kandahar prison



Some men, you just can't reach

"After the massive explosion, which was heard across the city and destroyed the gate and a police checkpoint, reports say up to 30 motorcycles raced forward, carrying armed men firing rocket-propelled grenades, machine-guns and AK-47s."

"1,000 inmates escape from Afghan prison after blast," by Doug Schmidt for Canwest News Service, June 13:

KANDAHAR CITY, Afghanistan - Canadian soldiers joined other ISAF and Afghan national security forces in a sweeping door-to-door hunt for hundreds of escaped prisoners after the Taliban staged a daring mass breakout at Kandahar City’s Sarpoza Prison late Friday.

A suicide bomber drove up to the prison’s main entrance and detonated his vehicle at about 9:30 p.m. local time. After the massive explosion, which was heard across the city and destroyed the gate and a police checkpoint, reports say up to 30 motorcycles raced forward, carrying armed men firing rocket-propelled grenades, machine-guns and AK-47s. During the ensuing 20-minute battle in the city’s west side, hundreds of prisoners were able to flee. It was still unclear how many escaped from the prison, which houses almost 1,200 inmates, including about 400 Taliban.

A Taliban spokesman said the group is claiming responsibility. [...]

One official told Reuters between 750 and 800 prisoners had managed to escape, adding some prisoners were killed in a gun battle between police and Taliban fighters inside the jail.

"I think scores of others are caught up inside," he said, adding he suspected the gate was blown up by a suicide bomber driving a truck. Several Taliban fighters entered the prison and started freeing the inmates, he said.

The blast caused an unknown number of casualties among the guards, prison director Abdul Qadir told Reuters.

"They (Taliban) used a truck to blow the gate open and all of the guards (at the gate) have been killed and are under rubble," he said by telephone. As he spoke, bursts of gunfire could be heard in the background.

The two officials who declined to be named said the Taliban fired several rockets at various parts of the mud-built prison.

Probably not the best place to house dangerous inmates posing a high risk of flight.

Hours after the attack, several rockets hit a base used by foreign troops in another part of the city, an official and several residents said. Sirens were heard from inside the base, they added, but no further details were immediately available....

http://www.jihadwatch.org:80/archives/021393.php

[Snowden]

4 Marines die in Afghanistan; 870 inmates escape
By NOOR KHAN and JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writers





Sat Jun 14, 5:12 AM ET
A vehicle lays over turned at the entrance gate of a prison, right, after Taliban militants launched an attack in Kandahar south of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, June 14, 2008. More than 600 prisoners escaped during a brazen Taliban bomb and rocket attack on the main prison in southern Afghanistan that knocked down the front gate and demolished a prison floor, officials said Saturday. At least nine police were killed.



About 870 prisoners escaped during a Taliban bomb and rocket attack on the main prison in southern Afghanistan that knocked down the front gate and demolished a prison floor, Afghan officials said Saturday. And in western Afghanistan on Saturday, a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military vehicle, killing four Americans in the deadliest attack against U.S. troops in the country this year, officials said.

The bomb in the western province of Farah targeted U.S. personnel helping to train Afghanistan's fledgling police force, said U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. David Johnson. One other American was wounded in the attack.

Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment based in Twentynine Palms, California, arrived in Afghanistan earlier this year and were sent to southern and western Afghanistan to train police. However, Johnson said he could not immediately confirm that the four personnel killed were Marines.

The bombing comes one day after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told his counterparts in Europe that for the first time, the monthly total of American and allied combat deaths in Afghanistan exceeded the toll in Iraq during May.

In the prison escape, the police chief of Kandahar province, Sayed Agha Saqib, said 390 Taliban inmates were among those who fled the prison during the attack late Friday.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force put the number of escapees slightly higher, at around 1,100, according to spokesman Brig. Gen. Carlos Branco. He conceded that the assault was a success.

"We admit it," Branco said. "Their guys did the job properly in that sense, but it does not have a strategic impact. We should not draw any conclusion about the deterioration of the military operations in the area. We should not draw any conclusion about the strength of the Taliban."

The complex attack included a truck bombing at the main gate, a suicide bomber who struck a back wall and rockets fired from inside the prison courtyard, setting off a series of explosions that rattled Kandahar, the country's second biggest city.

The rockets demolished an upper prison floor, said Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai, a deputy minister at the Justice Ministry. Nine police were killed in the attack, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary.

There were no indications that the militants received help from the inside, but as a precaution the prison's chief official, Abdul Qabir, was placed under investigation for possible involvement, Hashimzai said.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said 30 insurgents on motorbikes and two suicide bombers attacked Sarposa Prison.

NATO was providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets to help track fleeing militants, Branco said.

Afghan officials warned that the Taliban essentially boosted its force by 400 fighters because of the prison break, but Branco said NATO officials didn't think it would change the military situation.

"OK, they got some more fighters, more shooters," Branco said. "These guys who escaped from the prison are not going to change the operational tempo and they do not provide the Taliban with operational initiative."

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

Hashimzai said the jail did not meet international minimum standards for a prison. The Kandahar facility was not built as a prison but had been modified into one, he said.

A delegation of deputy ministers from the Justice and Interior ministries left for Kandahar early Saturday.


"Plans are under way to renovate all the prisons around the country," said Hashimzai. "Kandahar was one of them, but unfortunately what happened last night is cause for concern."

Kandahar was the Taliban's former stronghold and its province has been the scene of fierce fighting in the past two years between insurgents and NATO troops, primarily from Canada and the United States.

Qabir, the chief of Kandahar's Sarposa Prison, said the assault began when a tanker truck full of explosives detonated at the prison's main entrance, wrecking the gate and a police post, killing all the officers inside.

Soon after, a suicide bomber on foot blasted a hole in the back of the prison, Qabir said.

Ahmadi, the Taliban spokesman, said militants had been planning the assault for two months.

Canadian soldiers with NATO's International Security Assistance Force helped provide a security cordon after the attack.

Last month, some 200 Taliban suspects at the prison ended a weeklong hunger strike after a parliamentary delegation promised that their cases would be reviewed.


Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


4 Marines die in Afghanistan; 870 inmates escape - Yahoo! News

[john mclaughlin]

Its an afghan tet offensive!