Afghan troops storm siege prison

Pul-e-Charki prison is a vast complex on the outskirts of Kabul

Afghan troops have stormed the main jail in the capital, Kabul, after an escape bid by inmates escalated into a day-long siege that left several dead.

Witnesses said soldiers fired rocket-propelled grenades as they entered to retake control of the prison.

The escape bid had begun hours earlier when three Pakistani prisoners and an Iraqi killed a guard and seized his gun, prison officials said.

Al-Qaeda and Taleban-linked militants are among those held at the jail.

Stabbed

The attempted jailbreak began when the four inmates, two of them al-Qaeda suspects, used razors made into knives to attack and kill a guard who was taking them to morning prayers.

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They then snatched his AK-47 rifle, opening fire on other guards and killing three more.

A gun battle followed, during which one Pakistani and the Iraqi were killed.

The prison governor, Gen Abdul Bakhshi, said they were Islamic militants linked to al-Qaeda and were originally picked up in Kabul.

The two other Pakistani inmates held out for several hours, taking pot shots at the 200 police and armed militia who had surrounded the compound.

Armoured personnel carriers were also deployed by the Nato-led peacekeeping force in Kabul, Isaf, while loudspeakers broadcast the message "surrender or die" to the fugitives.

At least nine people were killed during the day's violence.

Pul-e-Charki is a vast prison complex built in the 1970s, used to house common criminals as well as al-Qaeda or Taleban-linked militants.

Among Pul-e-Charki prisoners currently is the American vigilante Jonathan Idema, who was jailed with two other Americans for up to 10 years for torturing Afghans and running their own private prison.