U.S. troops under Canadian command Monday nabbed some of about 475 suspected Taliban who escaped from a supposedly high security prison overnight Sunday.
The incident has thrown into question the sustainability of allied battlefield wins and places a very unflattering spotlight on the Afghan government.
In what appears to be an inside job, convicts escaped quietly over several hours without a single shot being fired. Freed in small groups from scores of cells where they should have been locked in, the prisoners fled through a narrow, precarious 300-metre tunnel.
On Monday the Taliban claimed supporters spent five months digging the escape route, which led under the main highway leading west from Kandahar City toward western districts patrolled by Canadian troops. The tunnel started under a house outside the prison walls.
The mass exodus occurred as Ottawa's mission in southern Afghanistan was entering what looked like a relatively safe home stretch before the end of combat operations in July. It was in an area where Canadian patrols had been relatively free of insurgent activity for several months.
Canadian soldiers privately expressed shock and frustration about the scale and audacity of the jailbreak.
Among the hard questions being asked were: How did those breaking into the jail have access to a large number of keys required to open the cells?
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