KABUL, June 14 (AFP): More than 1,100 inmates of a prison in southern Afghanistan, including militants, escaped after a Taliban suicide attack on the building, the NATO force in Afghanistan said Saturday.
"More than 1,100 prisoners were able to escape," General Carlos Branco, a spokesman for the NATO's International Security Assistance Force told AFP.
"Afghanistan national security forces and ISAF forces have cordoned off the area to re-establish security and recapture the escapees," he added.
"ISAF assets are used to follow the escapees," he said, without providing further details.
The blast from the suicide attack "not only broke the entrance but also a large part of the wall," Branco said, referring to a suicide truck- bomb that militants used to break their way into the walled prison building.
Afghan officials earlier said that at least 15 security guards were found dead.
A Western military official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the attack-one of the most sophisticated in the Taliban-led insurgency-was a major success for the rebels.
"Here behind this spectacular attack they have achieved success," the Western official told AFP.
"It was very different to the Serena attack and the military parade attack, which were very spectacular propaganda operations," he said, referring to Taliban attacks earlier this year, one at a military parade and the other one on the only five star hotel in Kabul.
