(MENAFN- Arab Times) Taleban insurgents in military uniform set off a car bomb and stormed an Afghan prison Monday, freeing hundreds of inmates and killing four policemen in the country's largest jailbreak in years. The brazen attack in the eastern city of Ghazni comes as the Taleban ramp up attacks on government and foreign targets despite being embroiled in a bitter leadership transition.

The raid is the Taleban's third mass prison break since 2008 and marks a major blow to Afghan forces facing their first fighting season without full NATO support. "Around 2:30 am six Taleban insurgents wearing military uniforms attacked Ghazni prison. First they detonated a car bomb in front of the gate, fired an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) and then raided the prison," deputy provincial governor Mohammad Ali Ahmadi told AFP.

The interior ministry said 355 of the prison's 436 inmates escaped. Most were Taleban and other militants. It added that four Afghan police officers were killed and seven wounded in the raid which left bullet-riddled bodies at the entrance of the prison. The Taleban, who launched a countrywide summer offensive in late April, claimed responsibility. "This successful operation was carried out at 2:00 am and continued for several hours. The jail was under Taleban control," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement. "In this operation, 400 of our innocent countrymen were freed " and were taken to mujahideen-controlled areas," it added. The Taleban are known to exaggerate and distort their public statements.

In the last major Afghan jailbreak in 2011 nearly 500 Taleban inmates escaped from a prison in the southern province of Kandahar. The Taleban at the time said they sprang the inmates through a 1-km tunnel that took five months to dig. The government described that incident as a security "disaster". And in 2008 about 1,000 prisoners including hundreds of Taleban rebels escaped when suicide bombers blew open the gates of Kandahar city's main prison. Taleban insurgents are stepping up their summer offensive despite a simmering leadership succession dispute after the confirmation of the death of longtime chief Mullah Omar.

Mullah Akhtar Mansour, a trusted deputy of Omar, was named as the insurgents' new chief in late July, but the power transition has been acrimonious. Afghan security forces, stretched on multiple fronts, are struggling to rein in the Taleban as NATO forces pull back from the frontlines. NATO ended its combat mission last December and pulled out the bulk of its troops although a 13,000-strong residual force remains for training and counter-terrorism operations. In other bloodshed this month unidentified attackers on Sept 5 shot dead 13 minority Shiite Hazaras after dragging them out of their vehicles in the northern province of Balkh.

The men were taken from two vehicles in a rare fatal attack targeting ethnic minorities. Afghanistan's president the same day implored international donors for their continued support, saying the "wounded country" faced a host of security and economic challenges. Donors have pledged billions of dollars over the past decade to reconstruct the war-torn nation.

But much of that money has been lost to corruption, which permeates nearly every public institution, hobbling development and sapping already overstretched state coffers. A Reuters reporter outside the mud fort prison in Ghazni, 120 kms (75 miles) southwest of the capital, Kabul, saw the bodies of two men who appeared to be suicide bombers and a blown-up car that had apparently been used to destroy the main entrance.

Clusters of bullet casings were scattered across the road. The interior ministry said that 355 of the 436 prisoners had escaped. Of those who got away, 148 were a "threat to national security and 207 were criminals", the ministry said in a statement. Four Taliban and four members of the security forces were killed in the attack, the ministry said. Seven police were injured. Mohammed Ali Ahmadi, deputy city governor, said the prison's security was well below recommended standards because it was so close to Ghazni - only 7 kms (4.3 miles) from the city centre - and it was believed that reinforcements would get there quickly in the event of trouble. On Sunday, officials concerned about a breakout had transferred 18 "dangerous" Taliban to a jail operated by the Afghan intelligence agency, he said. Seventeen were left behind. Ahmadi said he believed they helped coordinate the attack. "Roads to the prison were covered with land mines in advance to avoid reinforcement," Ahmadi told reporters. "An army vehicle coming for reinforcements was blown up by a roadside bomb while trying to reach the prison."