How did five hundred or more Taliban members pull off one of the biggest prison breaks in recent memory in Kandahar, Afghanistan? If you’re thinking that it was something out of the movies, like say, Shawshank Redemption, you’re actually not far off. Ron Moreau, Newsweek’s Afghanistan and Pakistan correspondent, along with his colleague Sami Yousafzai, spoke to two Taliban members that took part in the escape. Moreau explains how they pulled it off. And how big of a blow is the escape of so many mid-level Taliban (and a few major leaders) to NATO, the allies and Afghanistan? Fotini Christia, Afghanistan analyst and associate professor of political science at M.I.T., says this escape reflects a major problem and that the U.S. and Allied forces cannot win in Afghanistan without a competent partner in the Afghan government. “They were literally moving tons of earth under the government’s nose. And then they have 500 barefoot prisoners in the center of Kandahar,” says Fotini Christia, “There’s no way one can effectively do this without backing or collaboration with the security forces.”
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