KABUL, 18 December 2004 — Afghan soldiers killed two prisoners holed up in Kabul’s Pul-e-Charki jail yesterday after a daylong siege that started when a group of inmates killed their guards in an attempted jailbreak.
At least eight people, including four police and four prisoners, died in the fighting inside the sprawling Soviet-era prison complex on the outskirts of the capital, Prison Governor Abdul Salam Bakhshi told journalists.
An Interior Ministry official earlier said five police had been killed, but Bakhshi clarified that four police were wounded along with two prisoners, and one soldier who was hit in the final assault.
“The two prisoners resisting were killed by Afghan National Army soldiers. The issue is now over,” said Gen. Zaher Azimi, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense.
Two would-be escapees were shot dead earlier when a group of prisoners attempted to break out of the jail soon after dawn. Three of the dead prisoners were believed to be Pakistanis and the fourth an Iraqi.
The escape attempt began in the same cell block where three American vigilantes are serving long jail terms for illegally detaining and torturing Afghans in a freelance war on terror.
The two prisoners who survived the initial firefight fled to a workshop in the compound and stayed for almost 12 hours.
Police and militia forces armed with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers surrounded the building, but authorities finally ordered a rapid reaction force, supported by two tanks, to bring the siege to an end.
Afghan troops deployed around the prison and two armored vehicles belonging to the German contingent of the NATO-led peacekeeping force stationed in Kabul stood by on the deserted plain outside the prison walls.
Some peacekeepers were seen entering the prison, but spokesmen for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said none of their troops were involved in the operation.
Bakhshi described to reporters how one prisoner in a cell full of Taleban and Al-Qaeda had knifed a guard to death and shot two more officers with a rifle taken from the dead man. “There were 11 Taleban and Al-Qaeda fighters in that cell,” Bakhshi said.
The initial firefight took place on the ground floor of a cell block where former US Green Beret Jonathan “Jack” Idema, another ex-serviceman, Brent Bennett, and Emmy award-winning documentary film maker Edward Caraballo are being held.
Police and prison officials speculated that the Al-Qaeda prisoners may have wanted to kill the three Americans, whose cells were on the first floor.
