12 killed in shootout ‘were escaped al-Qaida’

A DOZEN gunmen killed in a shootout with Afghan soldiers were Pakistani members of al-Qaida who had escaped from intelligence service detention in Kabul just hours earlier, the Afghan foreign minister reported yesterday.

Three of the group killed themselves by detonating grenades as soldiers closed in on them on Wednesday morning, Foreign Minister Abdullah said. A 13th man killed in the clash was from the former Soviet central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, he said.

Abdullah's report on the firefight, the worst violence in the Kabul area in months, appeared to clarify confused initial reports from Wednesday, including Afghan military statements that "Arab and Pakistani" gunmen had attacked an army position on the capital's southern edge.

The foreign minister, at a news conference called to present an official account of the bloodshed, said two soldiers were also killed. Initial reports had said two or three soldiers were killed, along with a civilian caught in a crossfire. The person identified as a civilian may have been one of the escaped Pakistanis.

At one point, Abdullah said the 13 were "high-ranking members" of al-Qaida, but he offered no support for that, other than saying it came "from the investigation".

Afghan authorities were still investigating whether the prisoners had inside help in escaping from the National Security Department's Third Directorate detention centre, he said.

The 13 detainees cut through the bars of a window at the detention centre and escaped at around 2am, said Abdullah.

They apparently walked to the south in the direction of Pakistan and at around 6am were approached by soldiers from a nearby army post. The men opened fire and killed the two soldiers and wounded another, Abdullah said.

Soldiers at an adjacent army post then fired on the attackers, who fled into a nearby village where they took hostages but also met armed resistance from some villagers, Abdullah said.

It was not clear how long they held hostages, but Abdullah said none was harmed during what military officials said was a three-hour running gun battle.

Journalists later visiting the scene could see, from bloodstains and other evidence, that the men were finally trapped against the wall of an excavation at the foot of the mountain slope, and killed there. Abdullah said the military had sought their surrender, but "they resisted to the end".