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Army threatens to storm Afghan jail after two-day standoff
 A standoff between security forces and hundreds of rioting inmates at Afghanistan's main jail dragged into a second day, with the army threatening to storm a seized cell block if negotiations failed.There were believed to be about four dead bodies among the nearly 1,300 prisoners, who had not been given food since the riot erupted late Saturday at the dilapidated Pul-e-Charkhi prison on the outskirts of the capital Kabul. The rioters had also refused to hand over their wounded, believed to number up to 30 people, to ambulances waiting outside the sprawling complex, officials said. There were calls from inside the building for food and medicine, they said. Security forces had closed the gate into the complex to hold back prisoners who appeared to have armed themselves with makeshift weapons including steel bedposts and shards of glass, witnesses inside the jail said. Negotiations between the prisoners -- including about 300 Taliban and Al-Qaeda members -- and government officials opened early Monday. "The negotiations are still ongoing but if it doesn't work, we will intervene militarily. We will carry out an operation," an Afghan army official said on condition of anonymity. About 200 extra soldiers took up positions at the compound where hundreds of heavily armed soldiers and police reinforcements arrived Sunday. Rest at link. Posted by: ed 2006-02-27 |
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