The Taliban launched a well-prepared attack on an Afghan prison in Kandahar that held Taliban prisoners as well as criminals. Suicide bombs and rockets were used. A Prison official said: "Most of prisoners escaped". NATO confirms prison attack but has no details up to now (source: CNN, June 13, 21:30 GMT).
Al-Jazeera (Arabic service) reporting from Kabul: "Thousands" of prisoners now on the run including 400 Taliban fighters (21:40 GMT).
[In its original message, Al-Jazeera really used the Arabic plural of "thousand" while a later report (June 15) reduced the number of missing inmates to 870.]
Related news:
Some weeks ago, the provincial government of Northern Pakistan, under the guidance of the newly elected central government, negotiated a ceasefire with the Taliban who are showing a strong presence in the tribal areas of Northern Pakistan.
Only recently, Pakistani troops perished under "friendly fire" of U.S. troops in that region. The new liberal government of Pakistan, now replacing the military rule of former General Musharraf, launched an immediate protest (Al-Jazeera, English service).
Another news blog on Afghanistan by Ulysses
阿富汗未来局势进入"9/11"
以来最严峻时期（6月26日）
文件1
文件2
《新闻的后面》—两边的声音
Al-Jazeera (Arabic) 6月28日
从伊斯兰堡与华盛顿等两方来的写稿著
者的两个人谈论〈塔利班〉的新上升:
美国国防部长申明他恐惧的是〈塔利班〉
的攻打在阿富汗渐渐地上升了。
攻打上升的百分比是百分之四十在今
年第一的五月。
巴基斯坦的没有作法催办〈塔利班〉可
能导致猛烈爆炸，就华盛顿恐惧的是巴
基斯坦的失败。
但是巴基斯坦反驳美国的非难，申明的
是没有〈塔利班〉的活动。
也申明的是巴基斯坦想到管制他们的南
部地区。但是巴基斯坦和阿富汗等两国
的同境现在不是在两国的管制下。
翻译：W.W. / Ulysses
July 7, 2008:
In an interview with Al-Jazeera, the governor of Pakistan's North-West frontier province, Owais Ahmed Ghani, expressed his opinion that "all trouble we have came from Afghanistan".
As the subtitle of the above picture shows, another suicide bomb in Afghanistan targets EU troops. This comes only some days after the German governments' decision to allow German troops of its ISAF contigent to participate in direct military action against "insurgents". Up to now, all German troops' activity was restricted to civil aid and "logistic support" for U.S. combat troops in southern Afghanistan. That logistic support essentially includes the provision of airborne reconnaissance for U.S. military in the combat zone of Helmand province and elsewhere.
On the same day:
20 civilians killed in a bombing led by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
