Twenty-four Iranians being held in an Iraqi prison near the border with Iran succeeded in escaping Saturday night, the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) reported Sunday, according to dpa. Meanwhile in Baghdad, seven Iraqis were killed in three incidents Sunday and two US servicemen were killed in two separate incidents the previous day. VOI cited a security source in Wassit province, 180 kilometres south-east of Baghdad, as reporting the prison escape, and said that police had managed to recapture four. The source, who declined to be identified, told VOI the 24 Iranians had broken through the prison's main gate to make their escape. The report said a search for the escaped prisoners was underway and a state of siege declared in the area of Badra, 80 kilometres east of the Wassit capital of Kut.
