US provides surveillance as Afghans hunt for 870 escaped inmates after daring jailbreak

U.S. and NATO troops aided Afghan forces with reconnaissance in a hunt for about 900 inmates who escaped prison after a sophisticated Taliban assault that even NATO conceded was a success for the militants.

A roadside bomb, meanwhile, killed four U.S. Marines sent to southwestern Afghanistan to help train the country's fledgling police. The deadliest attack on American forces this year came one day after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates highlighted the fact that more American and allied troops were killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq last month.

Afghanistan's deputy interior minister, Munid Mangal, said about 1,000 prisoners were housed in Kandahar's …