Iraq detains 109 in jail break investigation
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//AP Photo BAG102
BAGHDAD — More than 100 prison officials and guards have been detained after 16 prisoners, including five al-Qaeda-linked inmates awaiting execution, made a jailbreak in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, a police commander said Friday.
The entire staff of the jail, including the provincial prison director, has been detained for questioning as part of the investigation into the escape, said police Lt. Col. Ahmed al-Fahal, director of the anti-riot department for Salahuddin province.
Al-Fahal said that six of the escaped convicts, including three of the al-Qaeda-linked inmates, had been arrested by late Friday.
Security forces continued the manhunt for the remaining fugitives, with the help of U.S. aerial surveillance.
The prison escape Wednesday came just before midnight at a jail on the grounds of one of Hussein’s former palaces in Tikrit, about 80 miles north of Baghdad.
Authorities said the prisoners pried open a bathroom window with a pipe wrench to escape, and al-Fahal blamed the jailbreak on the bathroom window’s shoddy construction.
Meanwhile, Iraqi authorities were examining how a controlled explosion of weapons confiscated by the Iraqi military went awry Friday, killing 15 soldiers near the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi and U.S. military officials said.
