Prison Break in Afghanistan Frees Hundreds of Militant Taliban Members; 4 Marines Killed in Road Bomb Attack

by Damozel | Levels of violence in Iraq may be decreasing; in Afghanistan, things aren't going so well.  In southeastern Afghanistan, the militants are making a comeback and those who know about these things will tell you that the gravest threat to the US of terrorism is likely to come from Afghanistan and Pakistan rather than Iraq. (VetVoice)

On Friday, Taliban militants blew up a prison in Kandahar, allowing between 870 and 1110 prisoners to escape --- including 'a number of high-ranking Taliban members'(BBC News) --- about 400 of them. (Guardian)  Kandahar is 'one of the key battlegrounds in the Taleban's insurgency against President Hamid Karzai and Nato and US troops.' (BBC News)   The purpose of the attack?  '[D]elegitimatizing the government by highlighting its ineffectiveness while improving internal cohesion and morale as a demonstrated example of the Taliban taking care of its own.'(The Newshoggers)

Afghan officials have begun investigations to determine whether any government officials were involved in the blast. (BBC News)

NATO spokesman Brig. Gen. Carlos Branco 'conceded' that the attack was a success. You think?

"We admit it," Branco said. "Their guys did the job properly in that sense, but it does not have a strategic impact. We should not draw any conclusion about the deterioration of the military operations in the area. We should not draw any conclusion about the strength of the Taliban."...

"OK, they got some more fighters, more shooters," Branco said. "These guys who escaped from the prison are not going to change the operational tempo and they do not provide the Taliban with operational initiative. (AP) 

Really?  That's good to know, though it appears that the Afghan officials would beg to differ.  They seem to think that having 400 or so new militants running around loose might give the Taliban quite a boost.

The Taliban prepared for two months for the attack on the Kandahar prison.(Guardian)    'The militants blew the prison gates open with a massive truck bomb and flooded inside, attacking the guards and freeing the inmates. A jubilant Taliban spokesman said the group had deployed 30 motorcycle mounted attackers and two suicide bombers.'(Guardian)

Notwithstanding the NATO spokesman's assurances, it sounds to me as if this is a fairly significant development.  Fester at The Newshoggers comments: 

Is there a systemic change in the quality and effectiveness of Taliban ability to organize and direct violence?  Or is this random noise?  I would hazard that it is a change in effectiveness in the Taliban as we have clear proof of their ability to plan and execute a very complex operation in the form of this prison break.

Kandahar was formerly a Taliban stronghold.  A number of Canadian troops are currently stationed there.(Guardian)  The resurgence of the militants 'is concentrated in the south and east of the country. Kandahar, where mostly Canadian troops are stationed, and Helmand, where more than 7,000 British soldiers are deployed, have borne the brunt of the recent fighting.'.(Guardian)   

Meanwhile, in a separate incident in western Afghanistan, four Marines were targeted --- and killed --- in a road bomb attack targeting Marines who were training Afghan police forces. (AP)  A day ago, Defense Secretary Robert Gates 'told his counterparts in Europe that for the first time, the monthly total of American and allied combat deaths in Afghanistan exceeded the toll in Iraq during May.' (AP) 

At VetVoice, Brandon Friedman explains why 'success' in Iraq, such as it is and if you want to call it that, is a distraction from the real threat to US security:

[W]hile conservative pundits and Bush Republicans are patting themselves on the back for the ebbing violence (relatively speaking, of course), these idiots have managed to give away the game in Afghanistan.  Iraq is--and always has been--a distraction from the Real Global War on Terror, and now those chickens are coming home to roost. We can see it in the casualty rates.  Osama bin Laden is still free and Ayman al-Zawahiri is too.  Extremism is flourishing in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and it's something that represents a much greater threat to the U.S. than does anything in Iraq.  General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker have said so themselves.  After such a deadly year, that should be plain for anyone to see.

This is why John McCain must not be elected.  We're on the wrong track now with our primary focus on Iraq, and McCain aims to keep it that way.

Memeorandum has blogger reactions here.

Can I hear you say 'amen'?  Pretty please?  I've never pretended to be any great fan of Barack Obama, but America can't withstand another four years of Bush-like or even 'Bush lite' foreign policy. 

Comments

[DigitalMind]

Thanks for this post. It was very interesting. It's rare to read about successful prison breaks !