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| Iraq |
| Failed Iraqi jailbreak included a Soddy, Tunisian, and a Russian |
| 2005-12-28 |
| At least nine prisoners and guards were killed in a gun battle at an Iraqi high-security jail on Wednesday after detained guerrilla suspects, some of them foreign, grabbed weapons and tried to flee, officials said. One inmate snatched a Kalashnikov rifle from a guard as a handful of high-risk prisoners were taken out at dawn to clean the yard, a guard from the Baghdad prison told Reuters. After raiding the prison armoury, the group freed more comrades but U.S. and Iraqi troops based around the jail quelled the revolt. Five staff and four inmates were killed and five prisoners and a U.S. soldier were wounded, the U.S. military said, denying assertions by police, including an Interior Ministry general, that the death toll was at least 20 among the detainees, who include some of the most violent of Iraq's insurgents. A Russian, a Tunisian and a Saudi were involved, he said. In other violence, rebels ambushed an Iraqi army patrol near Dujail, 60 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, late on Tuesday, killing two soldiers and wounding seven, police said. Serious attacks have increased in the past week following a lull around the December 15 election, when some rebels from the once dominant Sunni Arab minority observed an informal truce to encourage their community to vote for the first time and stake a share in the new parliament. Some Sunni politicians have warned that anger at results they say are forged and which confirmed the dominant position of Shi'ite Islamists could prompt more attacks, not just by the al Qaeda-linked Islamists bent on wrecking the U.S.-backed political process but also by Sunni groups that backed the vote. The Electoral Commission, assailed by protests over the past week, produced a U.N. official at its daily news conference on Wednesday to insist the ballot was fair. Commission chief Hussein Hindawi said a few ballot boxes out of more than 30,000 might be ruled invalid but that this would not affect the overall result. The Iraqi Islamic Party, driving force behind the main Sunni electoral bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, issued a statement condemning the past week's violence. "At the time when many political groups are preparing to end the political crisis through flexibility and patience and insight 
the party condemns these acts and calls on all sides to be patient and to act responsibly," it said. Up to 3,000 people marched to protest against the election results in the northern Sunni Arab city of Samarra on Wednesday, police said. But despite public protests, leaders on all sides say talks have started behind the scenes to put together a coalition government of all the main factions, including Sunnis who mostly boycotted January's interim election. U.S. officials are working hard to mediate in the hope that a consensus government can bring some stability and allow Washington to start withdrawing some of its 160,000 troops. Even without extremely bloody attacks, stability that might bring prosperity is elusive; the top U.S. military engineer in Iraq said December had been the worst month so far for attacks on Iraqis working on U.S.-funded reconstruction projects. "It's been a pretty bad month," Brigadier General William McCoy said, noting Baghdad had only six hours of electricity a day in the coldest season, down from 11 in October. President Jalal Talabani is launching a series of bilateral meetings at his Kurdish power base, starting with Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the most powerful Shi'ite Islamist leader, on Thursday. Hakim's Shi'ite coalition partner, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, will also attend, an aide to Jaafari said. Hakim on Wednesday backed a plan for a local referendum that could hand the strategic northern oil city of Kirkuk to the Kurds, the Shi'ites' allies in the present, interim government. Officials put the number of prisoners at the Kadhimiya maximum security jail at over 200. It lies inside the sprawling Adala military base, known to Americans as Camp Justice and once used by Saddam Hussein's secret police. he U.S. military said: "Sixteen prisoners attempted to escape the facility after first storming the armoury." The Justice Ministry prison guard told Reuters: "At 6:30 a.m., five prisoners were taken out to clean the yards. "When the officer was trying to shackle their legs to stop them from escaping, one of them pushed the officer aside and another attacked the guard standing nearby and took his gun. Then he shot the officer dead and wounded the guard." "The five prisoners rushed toward the armoury and shot the sleeping guard dead before they grabbed weapons, ammunition and body armor and also some keys." Among seven other prisoners the now armed inmates freed and armed were a Russian, a Tunisian and a Saudi, he said. "The group rushed the gate, firing on soldiers there and killing two of them," he added. "They also killed a translator called Firas, a maintenance worker and another guard." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 "The five prisoners rushed toward the armoury and shot the sleeping guard dead before they grabbed weapons, ammunition and body armor and also some keys." Sleeping on duty, definately a No No. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2005-12-28 19:41 |