Invasion of Afghanistan prisoner escapes
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During the 2003 Invasion of Afghanistan, many Taliban, al-Qaeda and militant fighters were captured and held at military bases in the region. On several occasions, there were instances of mass escapes.
[edit] 2003
On October 11th 2003, nearly 30 prisoners held near Kandahar managed to escape. Some reporters suggested they were actually released.[1]
[edit] 2005
On July 15th 2005, four prisoners being held at the Bagram airbase managed to pick the locks on their cells, change out of their prison uniforms, sneak out of the camp at night and crawl over a damaged wall and cross a Soviet-era minefield to meet a getaway vehicle.[2][3]
Despite a massive manhunt, including the use of helicopters, the prisoners were not found. A military police officer was initially suspected of aiding their escape, but was cleared.[4] It was determined that the prisoners had been seen at the 01:50 headcount, but had disappeared prior to 03:45[5]
The escapees were later identified as Kuwaitis Omar al-Faruq and Mahmoud Ahmad Muhammad, the former of which was considered to have been one of the highest ranking al-Qaeda members ever captured. The other two escapees were Saudi Muhammad Jafar Jamal al-Kahtani and Syrian Abdullah Hashimi, both of whom were held in the shared Cell 119 on the ground floor.[6]
Initial reports from the U.S. military gave different names, and included a reference to Libyan Hasan Qayad, who had appeared in a video giving a sermon on the end of Ramadan 4 November 2005.
In a later interview with Newsweek, an unnamed Taliban commander suggested that the four prisoners had actually been secretly released in exchange for captured US troops.[8] Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman spoke to the press stating that this "clearly wasn't the US military's finest hour".
On 18 October Kahtani released a videotape in Pakistan, detailing the escape and pledging further attacks against Saudi Arabia and United States.
Journalists reported on 25 September 2006 that al-Faruq had been killed by British troops operating in the Iraqi city of Basra. There were lingering reports he was a CIA informant.
