Taliban raid allows 1100 prisoners to escape from Afghan jail

Kabul, June 14 : Afghan security forces are searching for more than 1,100 inmates of a prison in southern Afghanistan, including militants, who escaped after Taliban fighters blew up the main gate.

"More than 1,100 prisoners were able to escape," said General Carlos Branco, a spokesman for the NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

"Afghanistan national security forces and ISAF forces have cordoned off the area to re-establish security and recapture the escapees," an international news agency quoted him, as saying.

"ISAF assets are used to follow the escapees," he said, without providing further details.

The blast from the suicide attack not only broke the entrance but also a large part of the wall, Branco said, referring to a suicide truck-bomb that militants used to break their way into the walled prison building.

A state of emergency was declared in the city, the second biggest in the country, after the attack on Friday night.

A Taleban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said that 30 fighters on motorbikes and two suicide bombers had attacked the prison, freeing about 400 Taliban members.

Police and troops are on the streets and all residents have been ordered to stay in their homes.

A number of high-ranking Taliban field commanders are believed to be among those who escaped.

ANI