ABU GHRAIB MASS JAILBREAK HEIGHTENS FEARS
OVER FUTURE OF IRAQ
23 July 2013 02:09 PM
An extraordinary and violent jailbreak in the infamous Iraqi prison of Abu Ghraib is believed to have sprung
free hundreds of extremists on Monday night. Suicide bombers blew open the prison gates, opening the
way for an assault in which ten guards and four militants were killed. In Washington, US officials fear that
the number of prisoners on the loose could total as many as 600, with a significant proportion known
al-Qaeda operatives. What does this herald for regional stability and the "war on terror"?
Well, some prisoners have been recaptured, notes Jabbar Yaseen in the Washington Post, after Iraqi
security set up checkpoints on exit routes out of the country into Syria and Jordan, or via Baghdad airport.
But "the assault on the heavily guarded facilities reinforced an impression among many Iraqis that their
security forces are struggling to cope with a resurgent al-Qaeda since U.S. forces withdrew in 2011"
Sharmine Narwani, a middle east expert at St Anthony's College, Oxford, told the Today programme:
"At the heart of the growing conflict in Iraq is the battle between two blocs, regionally that is represented by
Saudi Arabia and Iran, and globally that is represented by two camps: on one side you have US, UK,
France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and others.
"On the other side you have Iran, Syria and increasingly Russia and China."
"For the West, there is the fear that any change in the balance of power in the region will benefit Iran and its
allies."
Mass al-Qaeda jailbreak in Iraq was 'insider job'
The mass jailbreak in Iraq that led to the freeing of hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters was carried out with
inside help from prison guards, officials have claimed.
Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad
An Iraqi prison guard stands guard at the 'Baghdad Central Prison', formerly known as Abu Ghraib prison
in Baghdad Photo: EPA
Baghdad and Colin Freeman 6:19PM BST 23 Jul 2013Comments9 Comments
As security forces launched a major manhunt to recapture those on the run, Iraq's interior ministry said the
gunmen who attacked prisons at Abu Ghraib and Taji on Sunday night had been in "conspiracy" with
guards at both facilities.
The scale of the assault has prompted warnings of "dark months ahead" as the freed inmates - some of
whom were top al-Qaeda operatives - launch new campaigns against the government.
A statement from the interior ministry said: "There has been a conspiracy between some of the guards of
both prisons and the terrorist gangs that attacked the prisons."
The allegation from the Iraqi government came as responsibility for the jailbreak was claimed by the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an al-Qaeda franchise that many Sunni extremists in Iraq follow.
In a statement brimming with sectarian venom, it said the assault - one of the largest and most
sophisticated insurgent operations ever carried out in Iraq - was the result of months of careful planning
against Baghdad's Shia-dominated government.
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"The mujahideen [holy warriors], after months of preparation and planning, targeted two of the largest
prisons of the Safavid government," the group said. Safavid is used by hardline Sunnis as a derogatory
term for Shia Muslims.
More than 50 people, including 26 guards and Iraqi soldiers, are now known to have died in the attacks, in
which teams of gunmen and suicide bombers mounted synchronised assaults on both jails.
Iraq's justice ministry said that 260 prisoners had been freed, and that around 150 had been caught again.
The al-Qaeda statement claimed that more than 500 had been freed, and that 120 Iraqi guards had been
killed.
Questions were also asked as to why it took the Iraqi government 10 hours to send in helicopter gunships
to quell the fighting at Abu Ghraib, a delay that some said suggested poor command and control within the
security establishment.
One Iraqi politician, who asked not to be named, claimed that the assault on the prison at Taji was planned
simply to divert security forces from what was to be the main strike at Abu Ghraib, where an estimated
15,000 inmates are held.
He added that a number of senior Sunni guards at Abu Ghraib had gone missing since, and that it was
possible that they had been acting as "inside men". Other reports claimed that inmates had started riots
just prior to the attacks to distract the guards, and had been armed with weapons.
"We are preparing for a very bad storm in the next few months now that these inmates have been
released," the politican said. "We are talking about hard-core al-Qaeda here. Some were previously held
by the Americans."
The attack came exactly a year after the leader of al-Qaeda's Iraqi branch, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
launched a campaign called "Breaking the Walls", aimed at freeing imprisoned comrades.
Last September al-Qaeda launched a similar operation that freed more than 100 inmates from a prison in
Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit.
The ability of al-Qaeda to strike at the Iraqi government's most heavily-guarded facilities shows how the
organisation has regrouped in the last two years - and also how the Iraqi government is struggling to
maintain security.
Toby Dodge, an Iraq specialist at the London School of Economics and author of Iraq: from war to a new
authoritarianism, said: "It was one hell of an operation and speaks very much to the reconstitution of
al-Qaeda's capacity. It also shows a Keystone Cops element to the Iraqi government's response."
Iraq: hundreds escape from Abu Ghraib jail
Ten police officers killed as suicide bombers drove car packed with explosives into prison gates on
Baghdad outskirts
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Associated Press in Baghdad
guardian.co.uk, Monday 22 July 2013 18.12 BST
An Iraqi policeman in Baghdad
Ten police officers were killed and 19 others injured in a raid on Abu Ghraib. Photograph: Marwan
Ibrahim/AFP/Getty Images
Hundreds of convicts, including senior members of al-Qaida, broke out of Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail as
comrades launched a military-style assault to free them, authorities said on Monday.
The deadly raid on the high-security jail happened as Sunni Muslim militants are regaining momentum in
their insurgency against the Shia-led government.
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 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 US soldiers.
"The number of escaped inmates has reached 500, most of them were convicted senior members of
al-Qaida and had received death sentences," Hakim al-Zamili, a senior member of the security and
defence 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-Qaida to free convicted terrorists."
A simultaneous attack on another prison, in Taji, around 12 miles north of Baghdad, followed a similar
pattern, but guards managed to prevent any inmates escaping. Sixteen soldiers and six militants were
killed.
Sunni insurgents, including the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq, have been regaining strength in
recent months and striking on an almost daily basis against Shia Muslims and security forces amongst
other targets.
The violence has raised fears of a return to full-blown conflict in a country where Kurds, Shia and Sunni
Muslims have yet to find a stable way of sharing power.
Relations between Islam's two main denominations have been put under further strain from the civil war in
Syria, which has drawn in Shia and Sunni fighters from Iraq and beyond to fight against each other.
Nearly 600 people have been killed in militant attacks across Iraq so far this month, according to violence
monitoring group Iraq Body Count.
Recent attacks have targeted mosques, amateur football matches, shopping areas and cafes where
people gather to socialise after breaking their daily fast for the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
Before the Abu Ghraib Jailbreak: Militant Escapes in Iraq and Afghanistan
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Time.com Noah Rayman July 23, 2013
AfghanistanIraq
Sunni insurgents assaulted Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison on Monday in an astonishing attack that reportedly
freed hundreds of inmates, including leading members of al-Qaeda. The jailbreak has raised fears that a
rising Sunni insurgency will once again destabilize a country riven by sectarian divisions. U.S. forces
withdrew from Iraq nearly two years ago.
Prison breaks have plagued security efforts in both Afghanistan and Iraq since the U.S. invaded those
countries in 2003 and 2001, respectively. Below are some of the more high profile attempts at jailbreak in
the past decade.
Tikrit, Iraq September, 2012
In a similar incident that also raised concerns of a revived threat from Sunni insurgents, 102 prisoners
escaped a prison in Tikrit, Iraq, northwest of Baghdad. Many of the escapees had links to al-Qaeda in Iraq
and some were on death row. Unconfirmed reports say the prisoners were aided by car bombs and
gunmen who opened the attacks, but a local official told the New York Times that the prisoners began the
attack when they began firing weapons likely supplied by prison guards. The prisoners then stormed the
prison’s armory and engaged the police in a gun battle that left 16 police officers dead. The ensuing mass
manhunt recaptured 40 prisoners within a day.
Kandahar City, Afghanistan April, 2011
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice… Nearly 500 inmates escaped in April, 2011 from the same
Kandahar prison the Taliban had assaulted three years earlier. In a Taliban-led plot, inmates worked for
more than five months digging a tunnel equipped with electricity and air pipes that spanned nearly half a
mile from a cell’s floor to a nearby house outside the prison perimeter. “This is bad news for the
government,” said Waheed Omar, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, at a news conference.
Basra, Iraq January, 2011
Twelve militants linked to al-Qaeda donned police uniforms in January, 2011 and simply walked out of the
detention center housed in one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces in southern Iraq. At the time, half of
the detainees had confessed to involvement in multiple bombings throughout the area.
Kandahar City, Iraq June, 2008
In what may be the largest jailbreak during U.S. operations in Iraq or Afghanistan, up to 1,000 people,
including 400 Taliban militants, escaped a prison in Kandahar Province in June, 2008. The Taliban
claimed responsibility for freeing the inmates in a violent assault, saying they used 30 motorcycles and two
suicide bombers to infiltrate the prison. A month earlier, Sarposa prison mates had sewed their mouths
shut in a hunger strike against conditions in the prison.
Mosul, Iraq March, 2007
In one of the largest jailbreaks in Iraq prior to Mondays’ incident, dozens of gunmen stormed the Badoush
jail in the northern city of Mosul, facing little resistance, and freed as many as 140 prisoners. Badoush
prison was notorious for jailbreaks, including the prior escape of Saddam Hussein’s nephew Ayham
Sabawi, who was accused of financing the Sunni insurgency.
Camp Bucca, Iraq March, 2005
Camp Bucca held 600 inmates in March, 2005, when the 105th Military Police Battalion charged with
running the camp discovered a finished tunnel stretching 357 feet. The prisoner operation, reminiscent of
the attempt by Allied POWs to flee a German camp popularized in the film “The Great Escape,” was
planned for that night. Instead, the Americans uncovered an expertly designed tunnel structure strewn with
flashlights built from radio diodes.
Iraq Jailbreak 'Poses World Security Threat'
The international police organisation says many of the prisoners freed were senior al Qaeda members
facing the death penalty.12:02am UK, Thursday 25 July 2013 AERIAL VIEW OF IRAQ'S ABU GHRAIB
PRISON NEAR BAGHDAD.
Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad became notorious in a prisoner abuse scandal
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Interpol has issued an international alert over hundreds of fugitives who escaped from two Iraqi prisons,
saying the jailbreaks were a "major threat" to global security.
In attacks claimed by al Qaeda, more than 500 inmates fled the jails on Monday following simultaneous
raids.
"Many of the escaped prisoners were senior-level al Qaeda members, some of whom had been
sentenced to death," Interpol said in its statement.
The international police organisation said it had alerted countries in the region at the request of Iraq.
Authorities there were gathering photographs and fingerprints of the fugitives so an alert could be issued
worldwide to help track them down, said Interpol.
Warning signs on a security fence in the Taji prison, north of Baghdad
Inmates of Taji prison north of Baghdad were freed in the al Qaeda raids
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant said it had deployed suicide attackers, rockets, and 12 car
bombs, killing 120 Iraqi guards and SWAT forces in the attacks at Abu Ghraib and in Taji, north of
Baghdad.
Iraq's Interior Ministry and medical sources said 29 police and soldiers were killed, and 36 wounded in the
attacks.
Abu Ghraib was the prison made notorious a decade ago by photographs showing abuse of prisoners by
US soldiers.
హైదరాబాద్, జూలై 31: ఒక భాషగా, ఒక జాతిగా ఏర్పడిన ఆంధ్రప్రదేశ్‌ను ముక్కలు చేయడంపై సీమా ంధ్ర భగ్గుమంది. ఇదేమి 'ఇటలీ న్యాయం?' అంటూ కాంగ్రెస్ అధ్యక్షురాలు సోని యాగాంధీని నిలదీసింది. తెలుగుతల్లి కంట రక్తకన్నీరు పెట్టిస్తున్నారంటూ మండిపడింది. మొన్నటిదాకా తెలంగాణలో కనిపించిన రాళ్లవర్షం, లాఠీచార్జి, బాష్పవాయు ప్రయోగంతోపాటు బలిదానాలు ఇప్పుడు సీమాంధ్రలోనూ మొదలయ్యాయి. బుధవారం రాయలసీమ, కోస్తాంధ్ర ధర్నాలు, నిరసనలు, దిష్టిబొమ్మల దహనాలతో భగ్గుమన్నాయి. విద్యార్థి, ఉద్యోగ, వ్యాపారవర్గాలు ప్రారంభించిన 72 గంటల బంద్ తొలిరోజు సంపూర్ణంగా జరిగింది.
హైదరాబాద్, జూలై 31 : "విభజన చేసేశాం...ఇక వెళ్లండి అనే వ్యవహారం సరికాదు. రాష్ట్ర విభజన పరిణామాల్లో ఎవరికీ హృదయవేదన మిగల్చవద్దు. ఇరుప్రాంతాల వారినీ సంతోష పెట్టండి'' అని తెలుగుదేశం పార్టీ అధ్యక్షుడు చంద్రబాబు నాయుడు డిమాండ్ చేశారు. రాష్ట్ర విభజనకు కాంగ్రెస్ వర్కింగ్ కమిటీ నిర్ణయం తీసుకొన్న తర్వాత.. ఆ అంశంపై బుధవారం మధ్యాహ్నం తొలిసారి ఆయన ఇక్కడ తన నివాసంలో విలేకరులతో మాట్లాడారు. కొత్తగా రూపుదిద్దుకోబోయే రాష్ట్రంలో హైదరాబాద్‌కు అన్ని విధాలుగా సరితూగే రాజధాని ఏర్పడితే తప్ప ఆ ప్రాంతంలో ప్రజలకు నచ్చజెప్పడం సాధ్యం కాదని ఆయన పేర్కొన్నారు.
