Taliban tunnel jailbreak account reveals initial setbacks

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Tunnellers veered off course before emerging in Kandahar prison cell and leading 500 prisoners to escape
Kandahar prison tunnel
An Afghan policeman shows the entrance to the escape tunnel in the political wing of Kandahar's Sarposa jail. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Taliban tunnellers who burrowed into Kandahar's main jail in April dug a superfluous 120 metres after veering off course, according to an account of the prison break published by the insurgent group.

The escape of nearly 500 Taliban prisoners without a shot being fired was a spectacular coup for the group.

But the version of events that appeared last week in al-Somood, an Arabic magazine published by the Taliban, revealed the setback after the tunnel, which was supposed to enter the wing of the prison housing political prisoners, veered off to the right, "reaching a village close to the prison".

The problem was rectified after insurgents "downloaded the prison map from the internet" and used "earth measurement tools" to dig 100m back to where they needed to be, according to a translation published on the website of Alex Strick van Linschoten, a researcher who studies the Taliban.

The tunnellers had difficulties ensuring they emerged in the right cell in the political prisoners' wing of Sarposa jail. They were assisted by one of a few inmates who were in on the plot. He found excuses to bang loudly on his cell floor to guide the tunnellers.

All inmates except two conspirators were corralled into a Qur'an recitation session in order to keep secret that the tunnellers had successfully pushed a test blade through the floor.

With the Arab world an important source of funds for insurgents, the articles go out of their way to demonstrate the remarkable cunning and organisational skills of a small group who pulled off a feat that David Petraeus, commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, conceded was a "setback" to improving security in the south. Just two weeks after their escape, many former prisoners took part in a two-day assault on government buildings in Kandahar.

The article said the mission cost $20,000 (£12,000), with the bill offset by a business enterprise.

Tunnelling began from a building outside the prison walls that the Taliban turned into a cement workshop, which employed workers and produced building materials.

Work began on the tunnel only after the cement workers had finished work for the day, and cement blocks produced during the five-month operation were sold "making much profit".

The Taliban made more money from the earth excavated by the tunnellers, which they drove out of the compound in trucks and sold in a nearby market, the article said.

The magazine carried an interview with Muhammad Idris, a 23-year-old escapee, who described being told of the escape attempt just hours before it happened, and the moment when tunnellers burst through the prison's concrete floor using metal poles and car jacks.

Taliban commanders did not allow prisoners to carry luggage in order to prevent delays, and anyone with more than about $65 in cash had their extra money redistributed to other prisoners.

The process of getting all the prisoners through the main tunnel, as well as a secondary spur that led to a detention area, was eased by a telephone wire that ran through the tunnel and allowed commanders to talk to one another.

Weapons were brought so "state spies" in the political wing could be dealt with.

"The decision was made if such spies were to cause trouble or attempt telling the prison guards we would kill them by these arms and knives," Idris said.The articles revealed that the Taliban customised conventional wheelbarrows by attaching wheels from children's bicycles bought in a local market, which they then dragged through the tunnel with ropes.

The finished structure boasted a ventilation tube and 45 electric lights.