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Karzai's Office Says Afghan Prison Break Most Likely An Inside Job

April 26, 2011

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office today acknowledged that a huge Afghan prison break in which hundreds of Taliban inmates escaped was most likely facilitated from the inside.

The office statement from the palace said the mass escape through a tunnel "is an indicator of cooperation and facilitation from inside the prison."

Some 488 prisoners, the vast majority of whom are thought to be Taliban, escaped from Kandahar prison in southern Afghanistan through a 1-kilometer tunnel overnight on April 24.

The Taliban said the tunnel took five months to dig.

Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer previously described the escape as a "disaster."

Local officials said today that they have recaptured 65 prisoners.

compiled from agency reports

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/afghanistan_prison_break_taliban_inside_job/16794405.html

Copyright (c) 2011. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.