Qaeda claims Iraq jail raids that set top militants free

A policeman controls vehicles at a checkpoint yesterday in Baghdad, where security measures have been imposed in order to catch the prisoners who escaped from Abu Ghraib prison. AFP/BaghdadAn Al Qaeda front group yesterday claimed brazen assaults on Iraqi prisons that freed hundreds of militants including top leaders, killed over 40 people and threatened to erode confidence in the government. The attacks on the prisons in Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, and Taji, north of the capital, illustrate both the growing reach of militants and the deteriorating security situation in Iraq. Spiralling violence in Iraq has killed more than 620 people so far in July, making it the deadliest month of a year in which over 2,800 have died in unrest, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources. “The mujahideen (holy warriors), after months of preparation and planning, targeted two of the largest prisons of the Safavid government,” said a statement signed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, using a pejorative term for Shias. The statement said “hundreds” of inmates, among them 500 militants, were freed in the attacks. It also said the operation was the final one in a campaign aimed at freeing prisoners and targeting justice system officials, which was called for in an audio statement attributed to the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, last year. The statement, posted on a jihadist forum, came as security forces hunted intensely for the escapees, said by MPs to number at least 500, before they are able to rejoin the ranks of the militants. “Dark days are waiting for Iraq. Some of those who escaped are senior leaders of Al Qaeda, and the operation was executed for this group of leaders,” a senior security official said on condition of anonymity. “Those who escaped will work on committing acts of revenge, most of which might be suicide attacks.” In what appears to have been a carefully planned operation, militants waiting outside the prisons launched their attacks after inmates inside began rioting. “There were riots and then the prisoners took control of some guns and called the groups that were waiting outside,” said the security official. Militants then attacked with mortar rounds, bombs and gunfire, sparking clashes with security forces that raged for 10 hours. At least 20 security forces members and 21 inmates died. Officials have declared “a curfew around the two prisons, where ongoing search operations are being conducted”, justice ministry spokesman Wissam al-Fraiji said. Fraiji said 108 escaped prisoners had been recaptured, and reinforcements from the interior and justice ministries had been sent to the two prisons. MP Hakem al-Zamili, a member of parliament’s security and defence committee, confirmed senior Al Qaeda members had escaped, and expressed fear they would return to haunt Iraq. “Most of the inmates who escaped from Abu Ghraib prison were senior members in the Al Qaeda organisation and (had been) sentenced to death,” Zamili said. “These terrorists will go to Syria to return to the (Al Qaeda) organisation and return again to Iraq to carry out terrorist attacks against the Iraqi people.” “The escape of prisoners in this organised way from the biggest prisons in Iraq is another sign of the deterioration of security in Iraq in general, and Baghdad in particular,” said Hamid Fadhel, a Baghdad University political science professor. “It seems that the security situation is the victim of the political conflict in Iraq today,” he said, referring to long-running political disputes that have paralysed the government’s work. Bombs targeting mosques kill 12

Bombs targeting worshippers gathered for evening prayers at four Sunni mosques in Iraq killed 12 people yesterday, officials said. A bomb exploded in the Omar bin Abdulaziz Mosque in the northern city of Kirkuk, while another blast struck near Al-Salihin Mosque close by, killing a total of seven people and wounding 31. Two bombs exploded near Ahmed al-Mukhtar Mosque in the Dura area of south Baghdad, killing at least three people and wounding at least nine. And a car bomb exploded near Al-Imam Ali Mosque in Kut, southeast of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding nine.