Kabul, Afghanistan ? Seven Taliban rebels disguised themselves as visitors to escape a high-security prison in Kabul that is being refurbished for the arrival of terror suspects from the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, officials said Tuesday.

The breakout from the crumbling Policharki Prison on the outskirts of the capital comes six months after four al-Qaida members, including one of Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenants in Southeast Asia, broke out of a jail at Bagram, the U.S. military’s headquarters north of Kabul.

The seven men convinced their guards to let them walk out of the overcrowded prison Sunday by marking their hands with a fake ink stamp similar to one used to identify visitors to the jail, said Deputy Minister for Justice Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai.

The prisoners do not wear uniforms and the stamp is the main method used to differentiate between detainees and visitors, he said.

All seven had been caught in the past year fighting for the Taliban, said Gen. Abdul Salam Bakshi, the director of the country’s prisons. They were convicted in separate trials in recent months and sentenced to prison terms of between 16 and 17 years.