Four Al-Qaeda Escapees Are Safe, Taleban Say

Author: 
Reuters
Publication Date: 
Fri, 2005-07-15 03:00

KABUL, 15 July 2005 — Four Arab Al-Qaeda militants who escaped from a heavily fortified US detention center in Afghanistan this week reached a Taleban guerrilla haven safely yesterday, a spokesman for the rebel movement said.

“The Taleban found and recovered four Al-Qaeda mujahedeen this morning,” Taleban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said from an undisclosed location. Hakimi, whose information has often proved unreliable in the past, declined to say where the escapees were, but added: “They are far away from Kabul. They are safe and now taking rest.”

The US military said it was pressing on with an “aggressive” hunt for the four men who broke out of the detention center at Bagram Air Base 50 km (30 miles) north of Kabul on Monday, and declined to comment on the Taleban claim.

“The only comment I have is that the search is ongoing and we are investigating the circumstances of how they were able to escape,” Lt. Col. Jerry O’Hara said.

The escape was the first known from the Bagram base and a major embarrassment for the US military, which has refused to identify the escapees except as “dangerous enemy combatants”.

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. A US spokesman said on Wednesday it appeared the men had changed into less distinctive clothes to make their escape. The Bagram detention center has housed hundreds of militant suspects since US-led forces overthrew the Taleban in late 2001 for refusing to give up Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

They have included senior Al-Qaeda suspects arrested in neighboring Pakistan and elsewhere. The US military said at the weekend about 450 militant suspects were held there.

Monday’s escape followed a painful two weeks for the US military during which it suffered 19 deaths in a clash in the eastern province of Kunar, its heaviest losses in a single combat operation in Afghanistan since ousting the Taleban.

The losses have made 2005 the bloodiest year for US forces in the country and came amid stepped-up militant violence ahead of Sept. 18 parliamentary elections, the next big step in Afghanistan’s difficult path to stability.

Separately, a Taleban leader told Al Jazeera television yesterday that the group’s insurgents possess anti-aircraft weapons and are seeking to obtain even more powerful arms.

“We cannot reveal our military secrets but, by the will of God, we will obtain weapons more powerful than what we have,” Mullah Dadullah, a member of the Taleban’s leadership council, told the Arabic satellite television station in an interview.

“We have weapons that can down aircraft but we cannot reveal what they are,” he added without elaborating.

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