US forces launched a manhunt for four âdangerousâ Arab Al-Qaeda militants who escaped from US detention in Afghanistan yesterday. In a fresh embarrassment for US forces reeling from their worst combat losses in Afghanistan since invading in 2001, the four were reported missing from the heavily guarded detention center at the main US base early in the morning. The escape was the first known from the detention center deep within the sprawling Bagram Air Base, about 50 km north of the capital Kabul. The US spokesman at Bagram, Lt. Col. Jerry OâHara, described the men as âdangerous enemy combatants,â but declined to identify them.Kabir Ahmad, chief of Bagram district, said they were Syrian Abdullah Hashimi, Kuwaiti Mahmoud Ahmad Mohammad, Saudi Mahmoud Al-Fatahni and Libyan Mohammad Hassan. Dozens of US troops were seen stopping and searching vehicles every few hundred meters around the base and nearby villages, while US helicopters flew overhead. âWe consider this very serious business,â OâHara said. âThese guys are dangerous not only to Afghanistan but to the world in general.â He said there had been no US casualties in the escape and he had no reports of violence. âI canât give specifics on how they escaped,â he said. âThe circumstances surrounding the escape are under investigation as we speak.â
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