Islamabad: A total of 384 prisoners, including some “dangerous” militants, escaped from a jail in northwest Pakistan on Sunday after it was attacked by more than 100 Taliban fighters armed with rockets and automatic weapons.

The prisoners, including 20 dangerous militants, escaped from the central prison in Bannu city after the Taliban fighters fired rockets and lobbed grenades at its main gate at 1.30 am local time, said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Information Minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

Among the dangerous militants who got away were some foreign fighters and Adnan Rashid, who was on death row for involvement in an assassination attempt on former President Pervez Musharraf.

The former military ruler had survived two deadly terrorist attacks in December 2003.

A police officer said 10 of the prisoners were recaptured and an operation was underway to arrest the others. Jail officials said a total of 944 prisoners were in the jail when it was attacked. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan phoned reporters in northwest Pakistan and said the militants had carried out the attack. He said the attackers and escaped prisoners were on their way to different destinations.

The attackers came to the prison in cars and pick-up trucks.

They fired indiscriminately and lobbed grenades to force their way into the jail.

The attack lasted almost two hours, during which the militants and police exchanged heavy fire.

The attackers focussed on six barracks in the prison and police officer Sahib Jan said the militants broke the locks of cells of death row prisoners.

Reports reaching here said dozens of prisoners and policemen were injured in the firing. The militants escaped by taking advantage of the darkness.

Additional police forces and paramilitary troops surrounded the jail and cordoned off the area.

Officials said they believed the militants had come from the nearby North Waziristan tribal region and had fled to the same area with the escaped prisoners.

Information Minister Hussain said authorities would investigate why police within the jail were unable to repulse the attack and why there was a delay in other security forces reaching the prison after the attack began.

He said the militants had closed all routes leading to the prison after they launched the attack.

Reports said a large number of militants had recently been moved to the jail in Bannu from neighbouring Kohat and Lakki Marwat prisons, which are being converted into centres to rehabilitate former rebels. (PTI)

Kabul: Suicide bombers struck across Afghanistan in coordinated attacks on Sunday, with explosions and gunfire rocking the diplomatic enclave in the capital as militants took over a hotel and tried to enter parliament. Taliban insurgents claimed the attacks in Kabul with a spokesman saying by Taliban attack police facility in eastern Afghan town mobile phone text message that “a lot of suicide bombers” were involved.

Outside the capital, attackers also targeted government buildings in Logar province, the airport in Jalalabad, and a police facility in the town of Gardez in Paktia province.

Witnesses said suicide bombers had taken over the newly-built Kabul Star hotel, which was reportedly on fire in an area which includes a major US military base, the United Nations office and the presidential palace.

The area was sealed off by security forces.

Several other attackers tried to enter the Afghan parliament but were engaged by security forces and driven back, an official said.

They had taken cover in a building near the parliament and fighting was ongoing, parliamentary media officer Qudratullah Jawid told AFP.

Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoubi Salangi told AFP at least one attacker had been killed as fighting raged in several locations in the capital.

“Near the parliament, the first floor of a neighbouring building has been taken by police and one terrorist is dead,” he said.

In two other areas of the city militants had taken positions in tall buildings and “are firing”, he said.

A police spokesman said the areas under attack were the diplomatic enclave of Wazir Akbar Khan in the centre, parliament in the west and District Nine in the south.

South of Kabul in Logar province, several suicide attackers entered government buildings, including the offices of the provincial governor, police headquarters and a US base, deputy provincial police chief, Raees Khan told AFP.

In eastern Afghanistan two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gates of Jalalabad airport, wounding several people, General Jahangir Azimi, the airport’s head of police said.

In Gardez, also in the east, multiple Taliban gunmen — believed to be armed with suicide vests — launched an attack on a police training centre, Rohullah Samoon the provincial spokesman told AFP.

They occupied a building overseeing the facility and opened fire with machine-guns, he said, wounding four civilians. As the Kabul attacks began, several large explosions and bursts of gunfire were heard near the United States embassy.

The incidents come as Taliban militants step up their attacks as part of their annual spring offensive, heralding the so-called “fighting season”. (AFP

Jakarta: A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Sunday but there were no reports of damage, the geophysics agency said.

“The epicentre is in the sea and there is no tsunami warning because at less than 7.0 magnitude it is still considered moderate,” said Arif Nurahim, an official at Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.

The quake hit 640 kilometres southwest of Aceh province, which was shaken Wednesday by two massive earthquakes that triggered a tsunami alert.

At a magnitude of 8.6, the first of the two quakes was the strongest to hit since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 170,000 in Aceh but no major damage was reported.

Sunday’s aftershock was not felt in Aceh. (AFP)

KANSAS CITY: A spate of tornadoes tore through parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa, churning through Wichita and other areas while causing property damage but no immediate reports of deaths or widespread injuries.

Tornadoes skipped across the US Central and Southern Plains and residents braced for the possibility of more, but the twisters primarily affected sparsely populated areas.

A hospital in the town of Creston, Iowa was damaged by a possible tornado, and patients were being moved to hospitals in surrounding communities, according to local officials.

A tornado churned through the city of Wichita, Kansas. Storm chaser Brandon Redmond, a meteorologist with the Severe Weather Alert Team, said the twister passed over his vehicle and lifted it two feet (60 cm) off the ground in an industrial area south of the city. ‘The tornado literally formed over our vehicle,’ he told yesterday Reuters. ‘I’ve never been that scared in my life. … We had power flashes all around us and debris circulating all around the vehicle, sheet metal, parts of a roof, plywood.’

Damage was reported to a mobile home park, and Redmond said there was significant damage in the industrial area on the city’s south side.

Residents in the affected regions hunkered down for more severe weather. The National Weather Service said the worst conditions were expected in Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas, while other areas could see baseball-sized hail and strong winds.

‘Conditions will remain very favorable through the evening for very strong and potentially long-lived tornadoes,’ the National Weather Service said in an advisory. (Reuters)

Johannesburg: South African President Jacob Zuma is to marry his long-time fiancee, Bongi Ngema, next weekend.

According to the Sunday Times, the president’s spokesperson, Mac Maharaj, confirmed that the president would formalise his relationship with Ngema at a private traditional ceremony in Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal. Ngema will be Zuma’s fourth wife.

His other wives are Sizakele Khumalo, Nompumelelo Zuma and Thobeka Stacey Mabhija, the News24 reported.

He had divorced home affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in 1998 while another wife, Kate Zuma, committed suicide in 2000. The president has a three-year-old son with Ngema.

His fiancee has already accompanied him on a diplomatic trip to France.

Ngema hails from Umlazi Township, south of Durban and has numerous qualifications including a business degree. The president celebrated his 70th birthday on Friday where Ngema and Zuma’s three wives were on hand to help him cut a R12 500 birthday cake. (ANI)

London: George Washington has been named as the greatest foe ever faced by the British, according to a contest run by the National Army Museum to identify the country’s most outstanding military opponent.

The first President of US was one of a shortlist of five leaders who topped a public poll and on Saturday was selected as the ultimate winner by an audience of around 70 guests at a special event at the museum, in Chelsea, west London.In second place was Michael Collins, the Irish leader, ahead of Napoleon Bonaparte, Erwin Rommel and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

At the event, each contender had their case made by a historian giving a 40 minute presentation. The audience, who had paid to attend the day, then voted in a secret ballot after all five presentations had been made.

“As British officers conceded, he was a worthy opponent,” the Telegraph quoted Stephen Brumwell, who had championed Washington as saying.

The shortlist of five was selected from an initial list of 20 candidates, drawn up by the museum’s curators.

To qualify, each commander had to come from the 17th century onwards – the period covered by the museum’s collection – and had to have led an army in the field against the British, thus excluding political enemies, like Adolf Hitler. The contest was designed to not only identify UK’s most outstanding opponent, but also to draw attention to some lesser-known adversaries.

The one woman on the list was Rani of Jhansi Lakshmi Bai, who fought British forces in nineteenth century India. (ANI)