ISTANBUL – TDN with wire disaaaaaes



Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said yesterday that his war-torn country was justified in launching attacks on terrorist hideouts in Pakistan as Afghan and international troops launched a desperate hunt Saturday for more than 1100 prisoners who escaped a jail in Afghanistan when Taliban rebels blasted it open."Afghanistan has the right to destroy terrorist nests on the other side of the border in self-defense" the president told a news conference in Kabul."When they cross the border from Pakistan to come and to kill Afghans and coalition troops it exactly gives us the right to go back and do the same.""Baitullah Mehsud should know that we will go after him now and hit him in his house" Karzai said referring to a Pakistani Taliban warlord who has vowed to wage "jihad" against foreign troops in Afghanistan."The government of Pakistan clearly should know that we come there and hit him (Mehsud)" Karzai added as reported by Agence France-Presse.Several deadly missile strikes into the Pakistan tribal belt this year have been attributed to the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan.The coalition in Afghanistan released on Thursday video footage to deflect claims that it had killed 11 Pakistani soldiers in one cross-border air strike.U.S. officials have said the coalition was legitimately targeting militants but has offered to conduct a joint investigation with Pakistan.Pakistan has been combating hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants who fled over the border from Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.
Manhunt under away: Meanwhile U.S. and NATO troops aided Afghan forces with reconnaissance in a hunt for about 900 inmates who escaped prison after a sophisticated Taliban assault that even NATO conceded was a success for the militants.Afghanistan's deputy interior minister Munid Mangal said about 1000 prisoners were housed in Kandahar's Sarposa Prison when dozens of militants on motorbikes attacked the facility late Friday. Seven police and several prisoners died in the assault he said.The police chief of Kandahar province Sayed Agha Saqib told The Associated Press that 390 Taliban prisoners were among the 870 inmates who escaped. NATO's International Security Assistance Force first said Saturday that 1100 prisoners had escaped but later revised the figure.The NATO force's chief spokesman Brig. Gen. Carlos Branco conceded the militants pulled off a "very successful operation.""We admit it" Branco said. "Their guys did the job properly in that sense but it does not have a strategic impact. We should not draw any conclusion about the deterioration of the military operations in the area. We should not draw any conclusion about the strength of the Taliban."