Army assault ends Kabul prison siege

Afghan troops fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms in an assault to end a stand-off at a notorious prison today after an escape attempt by former al-Qaida suspects left at least six people dead.

A soldier involved in the assault emerged from the complex to say the rebellion had been put down and that the inmates had been killed but gunfire continued to ring out from Kabul’s sprawling Pul-e Charkhi prison.

The army assault followed a 10 hour stand-off after four inmates – three Pakistanis and an Iraqi – overpowered and killed a guard. Two of the rebellious inmates and three other guards were killed in an ensuing gun battle.

The surviving prisoners holed up and used guns stolen from their murdered guards to take pot-shots at security forces throughout the day, keeping them from reaching three wounded soldiers trapped inside the complex.

Explosions ripped through the area as the assault began just before nightfall. After the initial gunfire died down, a wounded soldier was carried off on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance.

Another soldier who called himself Zabullah later came out, still panting, and boasted: “We killed them”, but gunfire soon rang out again.