Four police and two prisoners were killed Friday when prisoners and security officials clashed in Pul-e-Charkhi jail near the Afghan capital Kabul, officials and local press reports said. Lutfullah Mashal, the spokesman for interior minister, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa the incident began early Friday morning after an unknown number of prisoners disarmed a policeman inside the jail. Mashal said four policemen also were injured in clashes with the prisoners. He said at least two of the prisoners were still holed up on the second floor of the prison Friday afternoon and Afghan police armed with light machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers had surrounded them. Asked whether the prisoners were all Afghans, Mashal said: "It is not clear yet, but there were some Iraqi and Pakistani prisoners in the same cell." Police were waiting until the prisoners' ammunition was finished, Mashal said, adding that the prisoners were still resisting. The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted unnamed sources as saying that those killed in the clash included two prisoners and two security officials. "The clash erupted after two prisoners with links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network turned violent," the sources said.
