Afghans say one Al Qaeda escapee recaptured

KABUL - One of four Arab al Qaeda militants who escaped from the main US military detention centre in Afghanistan was recaptured on Tuesday, a senior Afghan official said.

The man was found hiding in a mosque about two km northwest of the giant US base at Bagram that houses the prison from which the militants escaped early on Monday, said the official, who did not want to be identified.

"He was found in the mosque at about 9.30 (5.00pm NZT)," he said. "He was hiding there. The others are still at large." He said the unidentified Arab was recaptured unhurt in an operation involving the Afghan police Rapid Reaction Force and was handed over to US-led forces.

A spokesman for the US military said he had no information to confirm the report, but was checking it.

The reported arrest came amid a big ground and air operation involving hundreds of US and Afghan troops after the first ever escape from the heavily guarded centre deep within Bagram Air Base, the largest US base in Afghanistan.

The escape was a major embarrassment for the US military, which invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to overthrow the fundamentalist Taleban government after it refused to hand over Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.

The US military said there would be an investigation.

"It is a very serious matter for us," Lieutenant-Colonel Jerry O'Hara said when asked if the escapees might have received inside help from guards. "We will carry out an investigation on the issue certainly."

He declined to name the men he termed "dangerous enemy combatants", but Afghan officials said they were Syrian Abdullah Hashimi, Kuwaiti Mahmoud Ahmad Mohammad, Saudi Mahmoud Alfatahni and Libyan Mohammad Hassan.

The US military provided Afghan security forces with photographs of the escapees, which showed bearded men in orange prison uniforms whose ages appeared to range from 20 to 40.

O'Hara said there had been no US casualties in the escape and he had no reports of violence or any US personnel missing.

Kabir Ahmad, the chief of Bagram district, said he had heard the men may have escaped the base by a car.

Bagram has housed hundreds of militant suspects, including senior al Qaeda members arrested in neighbouring Pakistan and elsewhere, since the Taleban's ouster. A US military spokeswoman about 450 were being held there.

Monday's escape follows a painful two weeks for the US military, which saw 19 troops killed in a single combat operation.

The losses have made 2005 the bloodiest year for US forces in the country and come amid an intensification of militant violence ahead of September 18 parliamentary elections, the next big step in Afghanistan's difficult path to stability.

Taleban guerrilla spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi called the escape a propaganda disaster for the Americans.

"It's a big embarrassment for them," he said. "In the past, there was this feeling the Americans were so powerful they could work miracles, but this shows clearly they can be vulnerable."

- REUTERS