Kabul , Afghanistan ( CNN ) -- Hundreds of inmates , many of them insurgent fighters , slipped out of a southern Afghanistan prison early Monday through a nearly quarter-mile tunnel dug beneath the compound from the outside . The Taliban issued a statement taking responsibility for the escape from the prison in Kandahar , the Taliban 's birthplace . Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahed said digging the tunnel took five months . The escape took four and a half hours , he said . The Taliban claimed 541 prisoners escaped . The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said the number of escaped prisoners was closer to 470 . The Taliban said 106 of the escapees were military commanders , but there was no immediate government confirmation of the claim . Police recaptured eight of the escapees , the Kandahar governor 's office said . Monday 's break was the second dramatic escape at the prison in three years . In 2008 , as many as 1,000 prisoners -- nearly half of them Taliban members -- escaped after militants detonated a truck bomb against the side of the prison compound . The prison houses some of the country 's most dangerous Taliban prisoners , and the escape was an embarrassment for the Afghanistan government and its Western allies , according to CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen . `` It 's , I think , quite a black eye for the U.S. and NATO and the Afghan government , who have put quite a lot of resources into trying to improve the prison systems , and here you have this massive prison break , with sadly , some pretty hardcore Taliban prisoners who escaped , '' he said . Waheed Omer , a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai , called the mass escape `` bad news and a disaster . '' Although the Taliban said some of the escapees were military commanders , it 's unlikely the escape will have a significant impact on military operations in Afghanistan , said Thomas E. Gouttierre , director of the Center of Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska in Omaha . `` I do n't think I would see this as a big blow to Western efforts in Afghanistan , '' he said . Instead , he said Afghanistan 's government is likely to bear the brunt of criticism for failing to anticipate or prevent the escape , especially after previous escapes at this and other prisons . In the 2008 escape , militants used a truck loaded with about two tons of explosives and driven by suicide drivers to blast holes in the mud brick walls of the prison . A gun and rocket battle followed , lasting several hours and ending with militants rushing into the prison on motorcycles to free prisoners , according to Taliban accounts of the attack . Nine guards , seven prisoners and one civilian were killed in the attack , according to the provincial government . Security forces said they tried to track down the escaped prisoners , but said the large Taliban presence in the region and the numerous hideouts located there made it difficult to hunt down militants . Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban and has been the site of fierce fighting between international forces and insurgents . It has been the site of numerous anti-Western demonstrations , recently over the burning of the Quran , Islam 's holy book , by a pastor in the United States . On April 15 , the police chief of Kandahar province was killed when a man wearing a military uniform detonated a bomb at the entrance to the police headquarters . In February , 10 people died when mines exploded at a playground during a picnic hosted by a former police commander . In a separate incident , 19 people , including 15 police officers , died when armed attackers targeted police headquarters . After attacks on the country 's ministry of defense , the assassination of the police chief and now Monday 's prison break , Kandahar resident Kari Ghar said it 's `` impossible to call this system a government . '' `` This is the worst possible weakness of the Afghan government that almost every single political prisoners escape from the central jail in Kandahar , '' Ghar said . CNN 's Nick Paton Walsh contributed to this report .
NEW : Kabul resident : `` Impossible to call this system a government '' the Center of Afghanistan Studies claims seven of the escapees were military commanders . Afghan president 's office calls jail break a `` disaster '' The Taliban claims to have facilitated the prison break by digging a tunnel .