BAGHDAD — A dozen prisoners including Al-Qaeda-linked death row inmates escaped from a prison near Baghdad Friday, the latest sign that Iraq still struggles with basic law and order more than a year after American troops withdrew, officials said. The brazen prison break happened hours before thousands of overwhelmingly Sunni protesters rallied in the capital and other parts of the country, keeping pressure on an Iraqi government. Among the demands of the three-week wave of protests are the release of detainees held in Iraqi jails and changes to a tough counterterrorism law that Sunnis believe unfairly targets their sect. The prisoners managed to escape through windows in their cells early in the morning and then seized the weapons of guards manning two observation towers, according to a police official. The official said all of the prisoners had been convicted on terrorism charges and that some were awaiting execution, but did not provide further details of the crimes they were alleged to commit nor give a specific number for how many escaped. A guard chief in Taji prison confirmed the account. He said a number of guards were arrested and are being questioned to see if they helped the prisoners escape. Security forces launched a manhunt to arrest the escapees. The guard and the police official agreed to discuss the incident on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to media. An Interior Ministry official said all 12 prisoners who escaped were Iraqis, but a military source put the number of escapees at 16. “They escaped 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.” Jailbreaks are not uncommon in Iraq. In September, scores of inmates escaped following clashes at a prison in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit that left 12 people, including 10 guards, dead. The government acknowledged the inmates in that escape had help from the inside. In March last year, 19 inmates escaped from a prison in the northern city of Kirkuk, and last January, 11 prisoners tunneled out of a prison in the northern Kurdish province of Dohuk. — Agencies
