Afghanistan: Mass prison break underscores crisis of US-backed regime

The spectacular raid that freed them began Friday night when a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden water tanker into the main gate of the Sarposa prison. Then, a second bomber struck the rear of the facility, opening a breach in the wall. In the wake of the explosions, some 30 guerrilla fighters mounted on motorbikes attacked the prison with rocket-propelled grenades and machinegun fire, killing 15 guards before systematically opening all the cells and spiriting hundreds of political prisoners away in waiting mini-vans.

The attack represented a humiliation for the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai, underscoring its weakness, incompetence and corruption. It likewise points to the failure of the US-led NATO occupation to suppress the growing insurgency, despite the deployment of record numbers of foreign troops in the country.

In the wake of the prison break, US forces suffered their deadliest attack thus far this year when a roadside bomb exploded under a Humvee in the southwestern province of Farah on Saturday, claiming the lives of four Marines.

As of Sunday, Afghan officials claimed to have recaptured only 20 of the escaped prisoners. According to a NATO spokesman, more than 1,150 escaped. The Afghan regimes deputy justice minister, Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai, told the Reuters news agency that the prison breakout was a very unprecedented attack. He said that the regimes officials are busy finding out what really happened. We are trying to find out if there was any inside help.

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