Four prisoners with links to al-Qaeda being guarded by US troops escaped from a maximum-security prison in Baghdad and are still at large, US and Iraqi officials said on Thursday.
The breakout from Karkh Prison, formerly called Camp Cropper, is an embarrassment for the US military, which has handed over control of all of the detention facilities it used to run to the Iraqi government. However, at the request of the Iraqis, the US has retained custody over some of the most dangerous prisoners, including those with ties to terrorist groups or Saddam Hussein’s former regime.
US troops found two detainees attempting to escape from the compound on Wednesday evening, the military said in a statement.
When they conducted a sweep of the facility, they discovered that four other detainees were missing.
“US Forces-Iraq, Iraqi Security Forces and the [Iraqi] MoJ [Ministry of Justice] are working to apprehend these individuals,” said Major General Jerry Cannon, head of US detainee operations in Iraq. “This event is under investigation.”
There was no details on how the escape happened, who was to blame or who the people were that escaped.
An Iraqi military spokesman, Major General Qassim al-Moussawi, told reporters that the Americans informed them on Thursday morning that four Iraqis being held by the US had broken out of the facility, although it was not clear exactly when or how they escaped.
He said the men were linked to al-Qaeda and facing the death penalty.
The top US commander in Iraq, General Lloyd Austin, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki discussed the prison break during a high-level meeting on Thursday, an official with knowledge of the meeting said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said Austin apologized to al-Maliki and said the people responsible for the escape would be held accountable.
This is not the first time that prisoners have broken out of US-run detention facilities in Iraq; 11 Iraqis broke out of the US’ Camp Bucca in April 2005 although many were later recaptured. A month earlier US officials there discovered a 183m tunnel leading out of Camp Bucca.
In 2006, five detainees escaped from the Fort Suse Theater internment facility near Sulaimaniyah, 258km northeast of Baghdad; they were later apprehended by Kurdish security officials.
An Iraqi security official said troops cordoned off the area near the prison — including the Jihad neighborhood and the airport, where the facility is located, as part of the search for the fugitives. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Jihad residents said there was an intense Iraqi military presence in the neighborhood and locals were banned from driving.
On July 15, the US military handed over about 1,500 prisoners to Iraqi authorities during the changing of the guard at Camp Cropper, but continued to hold on to about 200 detainees at the request of the Iraqi government. They are kept in a separate part of the prison dubbed Compound 5 and guarded by US soldiers.
The prisoners who remain in US custody are “former regime elements, al-Qaeda operatives and very dangerous detainees,” Cannon said during a previous interview. He said they would eventually be handed over to the Iraqi government before US forces pull out of the country entirely by the end of next year.
The escape is the second since the US transferred custody of the detention facility to the Iraqis.
Just a week after the handover, four al-Qaeda-linked detainees awaiting trial on terrorism charges escaped from the Iraqi section of the prison.
The US$48 million complex has been used by US forces since April 2003 and can hold up to 4,000 prisoners. It’s now divided into six detainee compounds and is manned by 700 Iraqi corrections officers and about 100 support staff.
Meanwhile, gunmen broke into the house of a prominent Sunni cleric and decapitated him before setting his body on fire, police officials said.
A spokesman for the Diyala police, Major Ghalib al-Karkhi, said the cleric ran a medical clinic in the area before becoming a preacher and treated wounded members of the local anti-al-Qaeda militia.
These militias as well as people who assist them have often been targeted by insurgents trying to seek revenge or to intimidate others from working with the organization.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but al-Qaeda-linked groups have often beheaded their victims.
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