Al-Qaida fighters stage mass escape

Dozens of al-Qaida prisoners picked up after fleeing Tora Bora escaped after overcoming their Pakistani guards on a bus.

They grabbed the guards' weapons and opened fire in a mass escape that left six guards and seven fighters dead.

Pakistani helicopter gunships pursued the fugitives into the night capturing 21, while 20 others remain missing.

The bloody escape spilled on to a road near the town of Parachinar, where the band of militant fighters, mostly Arabs, had been held overnight after being captured while crossing the border from the Tora Bora region.

During the melee an al-Qaida fighter took the wheel of the bus driving it off the road and rolled it over.

Tribal security officials said the area was sealed off and "a hectic search is in progress".

The fighters were among 156 al-Qaida members taken prisoner by provincial officials since Sunday after they escaped into Pakistan along rugged mountain trails.

They were being transferred in a convoy of three buses and two trucks to a larger jail.