Four suspected Arab terrorists who escaped from a heavily-guarded US military detention facility in Afghanistan are "a threat to the global war on terrorism," a US military spokesman said yesterday, as a manhunt for them entered its second day.
The men broke out of the prison, which is in the center of Bagram, the main US base in Afghanistan, at dawn on Monday. It wasn't clear whether they were still hiding inside the base or managed to flee outside, US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jerry O'Hara said.
FIRST ESCAPE
The jail break was the first time that anyone has escaped from the detention facility.
The base is surrounded by several razor-wire fences and areas outside the perimeter remain mined from Afghanistan's civil war and Soviet occupation.
The detention facility -- where most of about 500 suspects in US custody are held -- is in the heart of the base, next to the runways and the main command center for operations in Afghanistan.
"The four are a dangerous threat not only to Afghans ... but they are also a threat to the global war on terrorism," O'Hara said. "That is why we are taking this search very seriously. These guys belong in that detention facility."
REWARDS OFFERED
Rewards have been offered for information leading to their arrests and investigators are working to determine how the men escaped, O'Hara said.
Afghan and US troops yesterday set up roadblocks and hovered in helicopters low over dusty villages surrounding the base, about an hours' drive north of the capital, Kabul, and home to thousands of US and coalition soldiers. It lies in a wide, dusty plain at the foot of the Hindu Kush mountains.
NAMES RELEASED
Local police chief Abdulrahman Mawalana identified the men as Abdullah from Syria, Mohammed al-Qatari from Saudi Arabia, Mahmood Ahmad from Kuwait, and Abulbakar Mohammed Hassan from Libya. In the photos, the men are wearing orange prison outfits.
"We are doing our best to find them. We've put their photos in shops and mosques. But we have no idea where they may have gone, whether to the north or to the south," he said. "If the local people spot them then we will definitely catch them, but they could be hiding anywhere."
O'Hara declined to identify the four or elaborate on why they were being held.
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