The massive overnight jailbreak in Afghanistan’s second-largest city serves as a reminder of the Afghan government’s continuing weakness in the south, despite an influx of international troops, funding and advisers. Kandahar city, in particular, has been a focus of the international effort to establish a strong Afghan government presence in former Taliban strongholds.

The 1,200-inmate Sarposa Prison has been part of that plan. The facility has undergone security upgrades and tightened procedures following a brazen 2008 Taliban attack that freed 900 prisoners. Afghan government officials and their NATO backers have regularly said that the prison has vastly improved security since that attack.

But on Sunday night, around 475 prisoners streamed out of a tunnel dug between the prison and the outside and disappeared into Kandahar city, prison supervisor Ghulam Dastagir Mayar said. He said the majority of the missing were Taliban militants.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said insurgents on the outside dug the tunnel to the prison over five months, bypassing government checkpoints and major roads. The diggers finally poked through to the prison cells Sunday night, and the inmates were ushered through the tunnel to freedom by three prisoners who had been informed of the plan, Mujahid said in a statement.

He said more than 500 inmates were freed, and that about 100 of them were Taliban commanders. The prisoners were led through the tunnel over four and a half hours, with the final inmates exiting around 3:30 a.m., all without drawing the attention of prison guards, Mujahid said.

Four of those who escaped were provincial-level Taliban commanders, said Qari Yousef Ahmadi, another Taliban spokesman

The highest-profile Taliban inmates would likely not be held at Sarposa. The U.S. keeps detainees it considers a threat at a facility outside of Bagram Air Base in eastern Afghanistan. Other key Taliban prisoners are held by the Afghan government in a high-security wing of the main prison in Kabul.

A man who Taliban spokesmen said was one of the inmates who helped organize the escape from the inside said a group of inmates obtained copies of the keys to the cells ahead of time.

“There were four or five of us who knew that our friends were digging a tunnel from the outside,” said Mohammad Abdullah, who said he had been in Sarposa prison for two years after being captured in nearby Zhari district with a stockpile of weapons. “Some of our friends helped us by providing copies of the keys. When the time came at night, we managed to open the doors for friends who were in other rooms.”

He said they woke the inmates up four or five at a time to get them out quietly. Abdullah spoke by phone on a number supplied by a Taliban spokesman. His account could not be immediately verified.

There are guard towers at each corner of the prison compound, which is illuminated at night and protected by a ring of concrete barriers. The entrance can only be reached by passing through multiple checkpoints and gates.

An Afghan government official who is familiar with Sarposa Prison said that while the external security has been greatly improved, the internal controls were not as strong. He said the Taliban prisoners in Sarposa were very united and would rally together to make demands from their jailers for better treatment or more privileges. He spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

The governor of Kandahar province said that a search operation is under way to track down those who escaped. “Some of the prisoners have already been recaptured,” Gov. Tooryalai Wesa said. He did not elaborate.

Asked how the tunnel was dug without anyone noticing, Wesa said only that the incident was still under investigation.

In the 2008 attack, dozens of militants on motorbikes and two suicide bombers assaulted the prison. One suicide bomber set off an explosives-laden tanker truck at the prison gate while a second bomber blew up an escape route through a back wall. About 900 inmates escaped, including 400 Taliban fighters.

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Karzai and Obama discussed a range of topics in the call, including the gradual handover of security in Afghanistan from U.S. and NATO troops to Afghan control.

“The two leaders agreed on the importance of re-establishing peace in Afghanistan through progress on transition, an enduring U.S.-Afghan strategic partnership, and reconciliation,” the White House said in a statement.

A Christian fundamentalist pastor burned a Koran in Florida on March 20, news of which sparked days of protests in Afghanistan in which some two dozen people have been killed, including seven U.N. staff.

Previous condemnations of the Koran burning by Obama and other U.S. leaders has done little to placate anger or ease anti-Western sentiments across much of Afghan society.

The statement said Obama and Karzai were clear that attacking and killing innocent people “is an affront to human decency and dignity,” the White House statement said.

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The planned demonstration could further inflame tensions over the Koran burning, which led to two days of protests in Afghanistan that included the killings of UN staff and stoked anti-Western sentiment across the Muslim world.

“Our aim is to make an awareness of the radical element of Islam,” pastor Terry Jones said at the church he leads in the college town of Gainesville, Florida.

“Obviously it is terrible any time people are murdered or killed – I think that on the other hand, it shows the radical element of Islam.”

Jones, a former hotel manager turned pastor who claims the Koran incites violence, said he will go ahead with a protest on April 22 in front of the US’ largest mosque, in Dearborn, Michigan.

US President Barack Obama denounced the act of burning a Koran but did not mention Jones by name.

“The desecration of any holy text, including the Koran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry,” Mr Obama said in a statement released by the White House.

“However, to attack and kill innocent people in response is outrageous, and an affront to human decency and dignity.”

Government officials in Pakistan and Afghanistan have called for US authorities to arrest Jones, however his public criticism of Islam and desecration of the Koran are allowed under US laws protecting free speech.

Jones provoked an international outcry last year over his plan to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, with Mr Obama saying it would cause “profound damage” to the US.

He backed down after pleas from the US government and other world officials, but then presided over a March 20 mock trial of the Koran that included a torching of the book.

Internet footage later reverberated across the Muslim world and sparked the latest wave of violence.

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The US-led coalition views the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar — traditional Taliban heartlands bordering Pakistan’s tribal areas where insurgent leaders reside — as crucial to turning the tide in the long war.

Gates arrived at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand after issuing an unusual public apology over a NATO air strike last week that targeted insurgents but killed nine young boys who were out collecting firewood in eastern Afghanistan.

“This breaks our heart,” Gates told a news conference Monday at the presidential palace in Kabul, as US-backed President Hamid Karzai looked on.

“Not only is their loss a tragedy for their families, it is a setback for our relationship with the Afghan people, whose security is our chief concern.”

Karzai, who has already angrily rejected a public apology from General David Petraeus, the US commander of international troops in Afghanistan, over the incident, said he respected Gates’ words but that such incidents had to stop.

“While we take that apology with a lot of respect… I would request Secretary Gates that he take the plea of the Afghan people to Washington that these civilian casualties stop,” he said.

The episode underscored strained relations between Karzai’s government and Western allies at a delicate moment in the nearly 10-year conflict.

They are preparing to unveil plans for a gradual handover to Afghan security forces from July, with some foreign troops due to withdraw at the same time.

Afghan army and police are due to take charge of the whole country’s security by the end of 2014, allowing international combat forces to leave.

After his apology, Gates told a news conference he was optimistic about the war effort and said US and coalition forces were “well-positioned” to begin a gradual troop drawdown as planned in July.

Gates, who arrived on Monday for a two-day trip, also said a US team was due to arrive next week to begin negotiating a “security partnership” between the United States and Afghanistan for beyond 2014.

He said both countries had expressed an interest in a long-term US military role, but he said the American presence would be a “small fraction” of the current 97,000 US troops out of a 140,000-strong foreign force now deployed.

There are calls from some Afghan and US politicians for permanent US bases to be established in Afghanistan and Karzai has said talks are taking place on the issue.

But Gates said the US had “no interest” in permanent bases in Afghanistan.

He added it was “open to the possibility of having some presence here in terms of training and assistance, perhaps making use of facilities made available to us by the Afghan government for those purposes.”

US commanders are bracing for a spring offensive from the insurgents but say they have piled pressure on the Taliban during the winter lull with night raids against militant leaders and efforts to disrupt supply routes.

The Taliban and other militants have been waging a bloody insurgency against international and Afghan government forces since being ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001.

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The number of Bundeswehr soldiers would remain unchanged at around 5,000, according to guidelines approved by the German cabinet earlier this month.

The government also has stated that “handover dividends” in Afghanistan will be “reinvested,” meaning that once troops leave certain areas under Afghan control, they will be relocated to other areas still in need.

The last troops would be scheduled to leave the country completely by 2014.

The plan will likely garner widespread approval after opposition party the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) signalled their willingness to vote in its favour in mid-January, but the environmentalist Greens have said they want a more precise description of the step-by-step withdrawal.

Some Green party members have said they will withhold their votes, while the socialist Left party will vote against the measure.

In an interview with daily Die Zeit on Friday, Green party co-leader Claudia Roth said that if countries like the United States could manage a concrete withdrawal plan, so could Germany.

“That also means being honest about the fact that a military withdrawal does not end responsibility,” she told the paper. “We need a peace plan that contains details of civil reconstruction after the withdrawal. So far the long-term perspective has been missing.”

Making up NATO’s third-largest troop contingent in Afghanistan, the Bundeswehr is based mostly in the relatively peaceful north, but the situation has become more dangerous in recent years. Forty-five German soldiers have died there.

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The aim of the new mission is to ‘strengthen the civilian police and legal system to boost the functioning of the Afghan constitution,’ according to a cabinet statement.

Soldiers will only be part of the team as ‘trainers, support staff, doctors, technicians and logistical support’, the statement said. The training mission’s security will be largely in the hands of German troops.

Fighter jets

In addition, four Dutch F16 fighter jets will remain in the country, the statement said.
They will be used in tracking down bombs and will take part in military action in ‘acute emergencies to protect Afghan and international units if they are threatened directly’.

The cost of the mission is put at €470m between now and 2015 when it will wind down.

Prime minister Mark Rutte and foreign affairs minister Uri Rosenthal are due to hold a news conference on the decision later on Friday.

Opposition

The anti-Islam PVV, which supports the government on economic policy, has already said it opposes the new mission, forcing the cabinet to look for support elsewhere to get the proposal through parliament.

The Labour party has also said it does not support the project because of the involvement of combat troops.

The previous government collapsed after Labour insisted the withdrawal of Dutch soldiers from Uruzgan went ahead in August as planned.

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“I can confirm that two members of the local staff at the consulate general in Jerusalem have been arrested by Israeli authorities,” a Foreign Office spokesman told AFP.

“We understand from reports that they have been charged with the illegal sale of weapons and we are seeking confirmation of these charges. It is an ongoing legal process.”

The BBC reported the two men, who were maintenance workers at the consulate, were arrested over their alleged links to a plan to fire a rocket at Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium.

The two men — one an Israeli citizen, the other a resident of East Jerusalem — had allegedly obtained weapons for two other men accused of planning the attack, said the broadcaster.

No rockets were found and the plot was in its preliminary stages, said the BBC, citing police.

The Foreign Office refused to comment on the report but a spokesman said the arrests of the staff members was not connected to their work at the consulate.

As maintenance workers, the pair would not have had sensitive security clearance, said the spokesman. All staff undergo appropriate security vetting, he added.

It is understood the pair were arrested last month.

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Wikileaks on Monday published online 92,000 classified military records, detailing the war in Afghanistan in the period from 2004 to 2010, including previously unreported civilian deaths.

The reports reveal concerns within Nato that Pakistani intelligence helped the Taliban, reports denied by Islamabad.

Public broadcaster NRK has identified at least 23 incidents in the documents in which Norwegian troops were allegedly involved.

However, according to the Norwegian Defence, they have found that several of the reports are incorrect, both with regard to facts and time/date.

The most damaging information, according to the Defence Command, is if the documents for example give details about how the troops detect roadboms and plan to protect themselves against such devices.

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General Stanley McChrystal, the US and NATO commander in Afghanistan and architect of Obama’s war strategy, was summoned to Washington to explain his “enormous mistake” directly to the President on Wednesday, the White House said.

Obama’s spokesman said: “All options were on the table,” but the President made clear he wanted to speak to McChrystal first.

“I think it is clear that the article in which he and his team appear showed poor judgment … but I also want to make sure I talk to him directly before I make any final decision,” said Obama, speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting.

Two US officials said they expected McChrystal to offer his resignation and allow Obama to decide whether to accept it.

McChrystal has apologized for the article in Rolling Stone magazine, which quotes his aides calling one top Obama official a “clown” and another a “wounded animal.”

In the article “The Runaway General,” McChrystal himself makes belittling remarks about Vice President Joe Biden and the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke.

McChrystal’s departure would add to already growing uncertainty about the course of the nine-year-war just one year after his predecessor, General David McKiernan, was pushed out of the same job.

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“That absolutely has not been decided,” Gates said in an interview with Fox News Sunday.

His comment was the latest indication that the magnitude of the drawdown, if not the deadline itself, is the subject of an intensifying internal debate at a time when a NATO-led campaign against the Taliban is going slower than expected.

Vice President Joe Biden, an early skeptic of the US military buildup in Afghanistan, was quoted as telling author Jonathan Alter recently: “In July of 2011, you’re going to see a whole lot of people moving out. Bet on it.”

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel did not deny the Biden quote when asked about it, but, like Gates, said that the size of the drawdown would depend on conditions on the ground.

“Everybody knows there’s a firm date. And that firm date is a date (that) deals with the troops that are part of the surge, the additional 30,000,” he said in an interview with ABC “This Week.”

“What will be determined at that date or going into that date will be the scale and scope of that reduction,” he said.

General David Petraeus, the commander of US forces in the Middle East, said last week that in setting the deadline for the surge last year, Obama’s message was “one of urgency — not that July 2011 is when we race for the exits, reach for the light switch and flip it off.”

Petraeus told lawmakers he would be duty-bound to recommend delaying the redeployment of forces if he thought it necessary.

In the same hearing, the Pentagon’s policy chief, Michelle Flournoy, said a responsible, conditions-based drawdown would depend on there being provinces ready to be transferred to Afghan control, and that there be Afghan combat forces capable of taking the lead.

Officials have said that training of Afghan security forces has gone slower than expected, in part because there are not enough trainers.

Gates said he had not personally heard Biden’s comments so would not take them at face value.

“The pace… with which we draw down and how many we draw down is going to be conditions-based,” he said.

He said there was “general agreement” that those conditions would be determined by the US commander, General Stanley McChrystal, the senior NATO representative in Kabul and the Afghan government.

McChrystal has said that even though a key campaign in Kandahar was taking longer than expected, it will be clear by December whether the surge and his counter-insurgency strategy were working.

Gates complained that “there’s a rush to judgment, frankly, that loses sight of the fact we are still in the middle of getting all of the right components into place and giving us a little time to have this work.”

But lawmakers from both parties have voiced increasing concern about the situation in Afghanistan.

Diane Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that 40 percent of the country is controlled or contested by the Taliban, and the conflict is “metastasizing” with insurgent groups joining forces and sharing money.

“There is one, I think, irreversible truth: The Taliban is on a march,” she said.

“If you lose Afghanistan, Pakistan is the next step. And so what that bodes is nothing but ill because Pakistan is a nuclear (state).”

Senator Richard Lugar, an influential Republican, said saying “goodbye” to Afghanistan was not the solution.

“I think the president is going to have to redefine the plan, and when the proper time comes for that, he will have to make a decision,” he said.

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