KABUL, Dec 17: Afghan soldiers killed two prisoners holed up in Kabul's Pul-i-Charki jail on Friday after a day-long siege that started when a group of inmates identified as Al Qaeda killed their guards in an attempted jailbreak.

At least nine people, including five guards and police, were killed at the sprawling Soviet-era prison complex on the outskirts of the capital. "The two prisoners resisting were killed by Afghan National Army soldiers. The issue is now over," said Gen Zaher Azimi, spokesman for the Ministry of Defence.

Two other prisoners were killed earlier when a group of prisoners attempted to break out of the jail soon after dawn. Three of the dead prisoners were believed to be Pakistanis and the fourth an Iraqi.

Trooper Zabiullah told a Reuters reporter outside the prison's main gate how he and two other soldiers had entered the building where the gunmen were hiding in a final assault.

"We went inside, there was three of us. One of us was wounded but the two Pakistanis were killed. The operation is over," Zabiullah said minutes after a burst of small-arms fire inside the prison compound.

An explosion was heard soon after, but police said it was a tank shell fired in jubilation. The escape attempt began in the same cell block where three American vigilantes are serving long jail terms for illegally detaining and torturing Afghans in a freelance war on terror.

The two prisoners who survived the initial firefight fled to a workshop in the compound and holed up there for almost 12 hours. Police and militia forces armed with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers surrounded the building, but authorities finally ordered a rapid reaction force, supported by two tanks, to bring the siege to an end.

AFGHAN OPERATION: Afghan troops deployed around the prison and two armoured vehicles belonging to the German contingent of the NATO-led peace keeping force stationed in Kabul stood by on the deserted plain outside the prison walls.