Afghan jail operation kills 8 prisoners in Kabul

KABUL (Reuters) - Eight prisoners were killed and 15 others were wounded after Afghan security forces clashed with inmates during a search operation in an Afghan prison near Kabul, an official said.

Violence broke out Thursday when security forces started to search inmates suspected of holding knives and guns in the Pul-i-Charkhi prison on the eastern outskirts of Kabul.

"The search operation is still going on and the situation is under control," Deputy Justice Minister Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai told Reuters, adding that three policemen were among the wounded.

Thursday a prisoner from inside Pul-i-Charkhi told Reuters by telephone Afghan security forces used gun fire against the inmates, many of whom are suspected insurgents, as they resisted the search operation.

A series of bloody riots have taken place in recent years at Pul-i-Charkhi jail and some months back Taliban insurgents freed several hundreds of jailed Taliban militants in an attack on a prison in the southern province of Kandahar.

Separately, two soldiers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed in a roadside bomb explosion in southern Afghanistan Thursday, an ISAF statement said.

Some 14 militants were killed by U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces in the southern province of Helmand during operations against suspected insurgents, U.S. military said on Friday.

(Reporting by Hamid Shalizi, Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)