BAGHDAD/MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Hundreds of convicts, including senior
members of al Qaeda, broke out of Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail as comrades
launched a military-style assault to free them, authorities said on
Monday.
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The deadly raid on the high-security jail happened as Sunni Muslim
militants are re-gaining momentum in their insurgency against the
Shi'ite-led government that came to power after the U.S. invasion to
oust Saddam Hussein.
Suicide bombers drove cars packed with explosives to the gates of the
prison on the outskirts of Baghdad on Sunday night and blasted their
way into the compound, while gunmen attacked guards with mortars and
rocket-propelled grenades.
Other militants took up positions near the main road, fighting off
security reinforcements sent from Baghdad as several militants wearing
suicide vests entered the prison on foot to help free the inmates.
Ten policemen and four militants were killed in the ensuing clashes,
which continued until Monday morning, when military helicopters arrived,
helping to regain control.
By that time, hundreds of inmates had succeeded in fleeing Abu
Ghraib, the prison made notorious a decade ago by photographs showing
abuse of prisoners by U.S. soldiers.
"The number of escaped inmates has reached 500, most of them were
convicted senior members of al Qaeda and had received death sentences,"
Hakim Al-Zamili, a senior member of the security and defense committee
in parliament, told Reuters.
"The security forces arrested some of them, but the rest are still free."
One security official told Reuters on condition of anonymity: "It's
obviously a terrorist attack carried out by al Qaeda to free convicted
terrorists with al Qaeda."
A simultaneous attack on another prison, in Taji, around 20 km (12
miles) north of Baghdad, followed a similar pattern, but guards managed
to prevent any inmates escaping. Sixteen soldiers and six militants were
killed.
CONVOY ATTACK
Sunni insurgents, including the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of
Iraq, have been regaining strength in recent months and striking on an
almost daily basis against Shi'ite Muslims and security forces amongst
other targets.
The violence has raised fears of a return to full-blown conflict in a
country where Kurds, Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims have yet to find a
stable way of sharing power.
In the northern city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, a
suicide bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives behind a
military convoy in the eastern Kokchali district, killing at least 22
soldiers and three passers-by, police said.
Suicide bombings are the hallmark of al Qaeda, which has been
regrouping in Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city and capital of the
Sunni-dominated Nineveh province.
A separate attack in western Mosul killed four policemen, police said.
Relations between Islam's two main denominations have been put under
further strain from the civil war in Syria, which has drawn in Shi'ite
and Sunni fighters from Iraq and beyond to fight against each other.
Recent attacks have targeted mosques, amateur football matches,
shopping areas and cafes where people gather to socialize after breaking
their daily fast for the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
Nearly 600 people have been killed in militant attacks across Iraq so
far this month, according to violence monitoring group Iraq Body Count.
That is still well below the height of bloodletting in 2006-07, when the monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000.
(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed and Suadad al-Salhy in Baghdad; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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