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'Qaida Inmates' in Iraqi Jailbreak
[An Nahar] At least a dozen inmates, including several prisoners linked to al-Qaeda who have been sentenced to death, beat feet from a jail north of Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
early on Friday, security officials said.

Sources mooted the possibility of collusion on the part of prison guards in allowing the jailbreak, which occurred shortly after midnight in the town of Taji, 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the capital.

An interior ministry official said all 12 prisoners who escaped were Iraqis, but a military source put the number of escapees at 16.

"They beat feet from Taji prison after they got hold of the guards' weapons," said the military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"It could be there was cooperation from the guards."

The officer said most of the escapees were linked to al-Qaeda's front group the Islamic State of Iraq, while the interior ministry official said several had been sentenced to death.

Jailbreaks and prison unrest are relatively common in Iraq.

On September 27, more than 100 prisoners beat feet from a jail in Tikrit, north of Storied Baghdad, although several were killed or recaptured in subsequent weeks, officials said.

In March last year, 19 inmates beat feet from a prison in the northern city of Kirkuk,
... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time...
and last January, 11 prisoners tunneled out of a prison in the northern Kurdish province of Dohuk.

Posted by: Fred 2013-01-12
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=359884