The Taliban has raided a prison in Afghanistan and released hundreds of terrorist operatives.
Officials in Ghazni said a terrorist unit attacked the city prison early Monday morning around 2:30 a.m. A car bomb exploded at the prison’s entrance and then at least six terrorists stormed the building using rocket powered grenades.
Three of the terrorists were killed in the prison break while four police officers were killed. Two of the dead terrorists were reported by Reuters to be suicide bombers who detonated the car.
The siege of the prison lasted for several hours.
The raid is the third major prison break by the Taliban in the last three years. The Taliban announced major offensive against government positions in April.
“In this operation, 400 of our innocent countrymen were freed … and were taken to mujahedin-controlled areas,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement taking responsibility for the attack.
The Afghani government said that 148 of those who escaped the prison were “threats to national security.”
Saeed noted in a letter to his supporters and family that his birthday this year fell on the National Day of Prayer in America.
“As an American and as a prisoner for Christ, I have spent many hours praying and crying out to God for revival for this great nation. We all hope for the success of our nation and for America to be blessed, but without revival there can be no true success or blessing. As Ezra’s cried out to God in repentance and the Israelites joined him in weeping bitterly and turning from their sin, I would like to ask you to join me in repenting and praying for revival,” Abedini’ letter begins.
The American Center for Law and Justice, who represents the family, said the letter was given to a family member in Iran last week.
The ACLJ said that Abedini’s letter focused on American Christians and a call upon them to turn back to God and make Him the center of their lives.
“Change starts with us. Revival starts with us. The first step to revival is praying together in unity as a nation. the National Day of Prayer is a great opportunity for us to come out and use the freedom that we have been given. So many Christians around the world are imprisoned and martyred for their faith in Jesus,” Abedini wrote.
“You have the freedom to gather across the United States at your state capitol to pray. Please use this opportunity. Please use your freedom for the kingdom of God.”
The wife of wrongly imprisoned pastor Saeed Abedini says the guards at the prison where he’s being held tell him that unless he renounces Christ, he will never be released.
“Last week had been quite difficult for Saeed. He has been under a lot of pressure and attack from the hardliners. The guards have also been threatening Saeed that he will never go free and additional charges (and years) will be added to his sentence (which they have done to other Christians and fellow inmates),” said the pastor’s wife, Naghmeh Abedini, according to American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ).
“They continually threaten Saeed that the only key to his freedom is denying Christ and returning to Islam. Saeed refuses to deny Christ and continues to be a light and witness in that dark prison. These threats, coupled with the fact that there have been mass executions during the last week in Rajayee Shahr prison, have really taken their toll on Saeed. He asks for prayer for continued strength,” she said.
Saeed has been imprisoned for more than two and a half years for his Christian faith.
The ACLJ is calling on U.S. officials to raise the situation with Abedini when they return to the negotiating table with Iran on April 21st.
“Our government must do everything in its power to bring pastor Saeed home. It is absolutely critical that the Obama administration and the State Department continue to demand that our innocent citizens — especially pastor Saeed who is suffering only because of his religious beliefs — be returned home,” said the organization. “He suffers from injuries. He is separated from his family. He is persecuted for his faith. He is surrounded by fellow inmates being dragged to the gallows. The thought is unbearable.”
Imprisoned pastor Saeed Abedini was sent an invitation to the birthday party of his son Jacob next week and responded with a letter saying his “chains are keeping me from you.”
He said that Jacob should invite Jesus into his heart and that He will fulfill all of his son’s needs.
The letter was given to a relative of Abedini who was permitted to visit him last week in his prison.
“I saw your beautiful birthday invitation that you had made me and I know how much you want me to be there on your birthday,” the letter reads. “Daddy loves you so much. I long to be there for your birthday and to make this reunion happen, but my chains are keeping me from you.”
“So happy birthday to my big boy and my hero, Jacob Cyrus Abedini,” he wrote.
President Obama had told Jacob he would get his father home for his birthday but so far nothing has been done by the administration to secure the release of the American pastor imprisoned for his faith.
A friend of the gunman who killed two people and wounded four others in Denmark is telling the media that he came out of prison wanting to “wage Holy war.”
The gunman, identified as 22-year-old Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, belonged to the Brothas gang and had a long, violent criminal history. He had been behind bars for two years in the stabbing of a 19-year-old and was only released two weeks ago.
“He went into prison a gang member, one of us—a petty criminal, I suppose. He came out wanting to wage a holy war,” friend Abo Saddam, 24, told the UK Mirror. “I don’t know who he spoke to in jail, but he must have made friends with other Muslims who made him the way he was when he came out.”
Saddam told the newspaper that it was recent attacks that fanned the flames.
“Prison changed him. He became a much harder Muslim with more hardcore beliefs. Not only that but he wanted to act on those beliefs as well, instead of just talking about them,” he continued. “He was inspired by the Charlie Hebdo attacks– I am sure of it—[and believed that] anyone who makes a mockery of Islam deserves to die.”
Two people have been arrested in connection with the attacks for helping El-Hussein with the murderous rampage.
An American who went to Cuba to set up internet connections for Jews inside the communist country has been set free after a deal between the Cuban government and the White House.
Cuban officials took Alan Gross in December 2009 while he was working as a subcontractor for the U.S. government’s Agency for International Development. Gross was on his fifth trip to the country to install internet for Cuban Jews that would bypass the government’s restrictions.
Gross has been in failing health in the last year. A pastor who visited Gross said that his teeth had fallen out and he was suffering from severe arthritis and other conditions. U.S. officials said Gross would be hospitalized upon his return to the country for treatment of his diseases.
Three Cuban spies were released as part of the deal to free Gross. The three are part of the “Cuban Five” who were jailed in 2001 in Miami for spying. The other two members of the five were released following completion of their sentences.
The President is calling for America to ease restrictions and to normalize relations with Cuba.
A Christian man who was working to help other Christians open a bookstore in Shanxi Province, China is being released from a Chinese prison.
Wenxi Li, a native of Beijing, has been working with Chrisitans in Shanxi when he was asked to come to a police station on December 19, 2012 to pick up books that had been seized by authorities. When he arrived, he was immediately arrested and thrown in jail.
They denied him bail and he was sentenced to two years in prison on June 17, 2013.
Family members say that they are optimistic the Chinese government will follow through on their word to release Wenxi. He has been transferred to a prison where he’s receiving better medical treatment and food and has been able to make short phone calls to his family.
His wife, Cal Hong Li, told Voice of the Martyrs that her husband has been able to share Christ with many of his fellow prisoners during his time behind bars. She said that she is thankful God found him worthy to suffer for His sake.
Cal Hong said she hopes her husband will take some time to rest and spend time with her before going back into the field to serve Christ.
The captain of a South Korean ferry which capsized and killed more than 300 people, mostly students, will be spending at least the next three decades behind bars.
Captain Lee Joon-seok was convicted of gross negligence but was surprisingly acquitted of homicide connected to the deaths of the passengers.
The captain had fled the ship when it began sinking rather than staying behind to try and rescue the teenagers and passengers trapped below the water line.
Family members of the students who drowned were furious with the verdict and the sentencing, saying that the sentence was too lenient and that it was unconscionable that the captain was not found guilty of homicide in abandoning the passengers.
The ship’s engineer was convicted of homicide only on the part of two ship’s employees that he left behind when the fled the ship. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Two Christian pastors and a deacon will be spending the next six years in some of Iran’s most desolate prisons because of their Christian faith.
Pastors Benham Irani and Matthias Haghnejad along with deacon Silas Rabbani will be taken to prisons as far away from family and friends as the Iranian government can take them after convictions on trumped-up charges to justify the government’s campaign of hate against Christians.
“We are deeply concerned by the six-year sentences given to pastors [Benham] Irani and [Matthias] Haghnejad and deacon Silas Rabbani, and the fact that they will serve these sentences so far from their families and home towns,” said Christian Solidarity Worldwide Chief Operating Officer Andy Dipper.
“We are particularly appalled by the extra six years given to pastor Irani, who has already endured ill-treatment whilst in prison and now faces nearly a decade in prison on trumped-up charges. We urge the Iranian government to release without delay every person who is imprisoned for their faith. Their incarceration contravenes international covenants guaranteeing freedom of religion or belief, to which Iran is party.”
The government claims the Christian men were taking “action against the state” and “action against the order” along with Pastor Irani being accused of “spreading corruption on Earth.” He could have received the death penalty on the last charge.
