KABUL, Aug 18: Thirteen foreign Al Qaeda or Taliban prisoners who were killed in a shootout with Afghan security forces earlier this month had escaped from a detention centre where they were to be screened ahead of their release, a top intelligence official said on Sunday.

The group of 12 Pakistanis and one prisoner of war from Kyrgystan broke out of their cell through a window in a National Directorate of Security (NDS) centre in Kabul on August 7, NDS director Amrullah Saleh told reporters.

Saleh said that between 2,000 and 4,000 Al Qaeda or Taliban prisoners remained in custody. He would not say how many were foreign or Afghan, but said the majority of the foreigners hailed from Pakistan.—AFP