Kandahar assaults underscore vulnerabilities in Afghan war effort

Last month, nearly 500 militants escaped from Kandahar’s prison through a 300-meter long tunnel, as The Christian Science Monitor reported. The Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman said that nearly all the militants killed Saturday and Sunday were among the escaped prisoners. Reuters reports that a Taliban spokesman claimed escapees were among the attackers, and said the Taliban were behind the attack.

Though it came less than a week after US forces killed Taliban leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the assault was not in retaliation for Bin Laden’s death, said the Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi. "A number of fighters are in several locations around the city. These are not retaliatory attacks for the death of Osama bin Laden but are part of our spring offensive,” he told Reuters.

The Christian Science Monitor reported that the jailbreak, coming at the beginning of the Afghan fighting season, was not a good sign for international forces battling the Taliban.

"The escape of nearly 500 inmates, most of them Taliban members, from Kandahar’s Sarposa prison is likely to push the security of Kandahar and neighboring parts of Afghanistan in a perilous direction.

While the identities of the escapees and their importance to the Taliban is uncertain, the militant group at minimum has received an influx of foot-soldiers at the start of the summer fighting season. It has also demonstrated its ability to plan and execute a brazen operation in a city that is currently the intense focus of US intelligence and counterinsurgency operations."

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