Over the weekend, a jail in Khandahar City in Afghanistan was subject to an assault, leading to 400 of the most dangeroues and blood thirsty Taliban fighters escaping. The attack obviously included the obligitary suicide bombings, well two to be precise. One 'martyred' himself by blowing a hole in the prison's wall... not quite as spectacular as the Twin Towers, but he'll be living it up with his 72 virgins right now, so I suppose it's all the same to him... but I think a sledgehammer would do the trick.

Suicide bombings used to be one of the biggest fears of the West, but the overuse of them have left most of looking at them with a puzzling and almost comic curiosity about them. Afghanistan seems to be just one larger and dustier Brigend, with everyone running round like lemmings trying to kill themselves. The thought of martrying yourself and going to a cosmic all-girls, primary school (well, a kindergarten if the said virgins are from Birkenhead) seems to be big on most peoples' 'things to do' lists for the day. Personally, I don't think that it's any coincidence that the vast majority of suicide bombings occur in countries where the segregation of men and women are highest. Personally, if I was stuck in a mud-brick village in Afghanistan, with just a goat for sexual companionship, I would be strapping on a suicide bomb belt faster than you could say 'w'allah akbar'. Obviously without the virgins though... I've always though it would be a lot better to live for eternity with girls who knew what they were doing in the bedroom; who could teach me a thing or two. It would be like Alex Ferguson going to heaven to find that he was left in charge of Kiderminster Harriers... not that I'm the sexual equivelant of Ferguson of coarse.

With the number of teenage suicide bombers, it seems the bearded mullahs of the Taliban have wisely chosen horny 15 year olds as the most likely to kill themselves to get some action with women, which proves that even Islamic fundamentalists need some loving.

The jail break will be a major setback for the NATO forces who are already stretched and under-equipped, but these people will have to be caught, and with the level of tribalism in Afghanistan, that might prove to be a difficult task. I think they best bet for the Afghan National Army is to find the local blind-disabled orphanage, which always seems like a prime base for the Taliban to launch rocket attacks from. And although I am against capital punishment, in this case, I certainly wouldn't be against the army dragging out the said fundamentalists by their beard and administering some Pashtun justice with a bullet in the back of their head. Then again, might be a bad idea. Knowing the mentality of Taliban fighters, that moment before martyrdom would probally be the proadest of their lives... well maybe just behind when they first raped their 12-year old wife.