Al-Qaeda inmates flee Tikrit prison

Thu Sep 24, 2009

Security sources say over a dozen convicted al-Qaeda terrorists have broken loose overnight from a prison in the central Iraqi city of Tikrit.

Sixteen prisoners from al-Qaeda, including five who have been sentenced to death, managed to escape at night from one of the prisons in the center of Tikrit, a security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP on Thursday.

The group managed to remove the windows from a prison bathroom, crawled through the opening and scaled a ladder to climb over the prison wall, he said.

One of the men was re-captured on Thursday morning but the rest are still at large, the official added.

Iraqi forces have stepped up security in Tikrit, located 180 kilometers (110 miles) north of Baghdad in Salaheddin province, which is also the birth place of executed dictator Saddam Hussein.

A predominantly Sunni town, Tikrit is viewed by Washington as a safe haven for al-Qaeda militants who are operating in the war-torn country years after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/106986.html.