KABUL, 13 July 2005 — Hundreds of US and Afghan troops searched yesterday for four Al-Qaeda militants who escaped from the main US military detention center in Afghanistan in what is a major embarrassment for American forces. A police officer and senior Afghan government official in Kabul had earlier said one of the escapees from Bagram Air Base had been recaptured but local Afghan authorities said this was not so.
Bagram district chief Kabir Ahmad said a man arrested at a mosque northwest of the base yesterday was not one of the escapees but someone with a mental disorder who had been mistaken for one of the four.
A manhunt involving hundreds of US and Afghan troops backed by helicopters was launched on Monday after what was the first ever escape from the heavily guarded center deep within Bagram, the largest US base in Afghanistan.
The escape has been a major embarrassment for the US military, which invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to overthrow the fundamentalist Taleban government after it refused to hand over Osama Bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda leaders responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
The military said there would be an investigation. “It is a very serious matter for us,” Lt. Col. Jerry O’Hara said when asked if the escapees might have received inside help from guards. “We will carry out an investigation on the issue certainly.”
He has declined to name the men he termed “dangerous enemy combatants” but Afghan officials said they were Syrian Abdullah Hashimi, Kuwaiti Mahmoud Ahmad Mohammad, Saudi Mahmoud Al-Fatahni and Libyan Mohammad Hassan.
The US military provided Afghan security forces with photographs of the escapees, which showed bearded men in orange prison uniforms whose ages appeared to range from 20 to 40.
Kabir Ahmad said he had heard the men might have escaped the base by car.
Detainees at Bagram have included senior Al-Qaeda suspects arrested in neighboring Pakistan and elsewhere and a US military spokeswoman said about 450 militant suspects were held there.
Monday’s escape follows a painful two weeks for the US military in which it suffered 19 deaths in its worst losses in a single combat operation in Afghanistan.
The losses have made 2005 the bloodiest year for US forces in the country and have come amid increased militant violence ahead of Sept. 18 parliamentary elections.
