Taliban tunnel: Five prison escapes in Iraq, Afghanistan

Taliban sympathizers must surely be heartened by today's spectacular escape of some 500 inmates from a Kandahar prison through a 1,180-foot tunnel. Here's a short list of recent jail breaks (and one near-escape) in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Basra walkout: 12 militants

Some jail breaks don't require getting your fingernails dirty. In January 2011 at a prison in the southern Iraq city of Basra, 12 prisoners obtained police uniforms and simply walked out of the detention center. They were said to have ties with the Islamic State of Iraq – a Sunni insurgent group affiliated to Al Qaedaaccording to the BBC.

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