FOUR foreign inmates have overpowered a guard and taken his rifle, starting a shootout at Kabul's main prison that left at least six dead. The men - an Iraqi and three Pakistanis - used shaving razors to attack the guard who was leading them to morning prayers. They took his gun and stabbed him to death, Abdul Salam Bakhshi, head of the Pule Charki prison, said. Three other guards and two of the would-be escapees died in the ensuing gun battle. Two of the Pakistanis scavenged a second gun and remained holed up on the jail's war-damaged second floor, Mr Bakhski said. An armored personnel carrier was brought to the scene. The two dead inmates had been released from a jail in northern Afghanistan run by General Abdul Rashid Dostum, one of Afghanistan's most powerful warlords, then were arrested in Kabul for unspecified criminal offenses, Mr Bakhshi said. The jail is for those who have committed criminal offenses, and is unrelated to the US military detention facilities for captured Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters.