Taliban fighters stormed a main prison in central Afghan city of Ghazni, today, killing police officers and releasing many prisoners, police officials said.
Deputy provincial governor Mohammad Ali Ahmadi told AFP news agency “Around 2:30am six Taliban insurgents wearing military uniforms attacked Ghazni prison. First they detonated a car bomb in front of the gate, fired an RPG and then raided the prison”. He stated that al least four police guards were killed and seven others were wounded, and that three Taliban fighters were also killed in the early morning battle.
The interior ministry has said 355 of the prison’s 436 inmates escaped. Most of them were charged with crimes against national security and other criminal offences.
According to Baz Mohammed Hemat, head of the civilian hospital in Ghazni city, 14 injured people, who included 10 security forces and four inmates, were brought to the hospital for treatment.
The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the raid through a statement by their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. “ This successful operation was carried out at 2:00 am and continued for several hours. The jail was under Taliban Control. In this operation, 400 of our innocent countrymen were freed… and were taken to mujahideen-controlled areas” the statement read.
In 2011, around 500 Taliban fighters and commanders escaped from a prison in an audacious jailbreak in Kandahar province, in what the government described as a national security “disaster”.
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