ABU GHRAIB MASS JAILBREAK

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.