BAGHDAD — Four Islamic extremists escaped a prison inside the Baghdad airport compound that the U.S. military had handed over to the Iraqi government with great fanfare just last week, state television said Thursday.
The escape from under the noses of Iraqi and U.S. military forces was sure to raise questions about the competence and loyalties of officials running Iraq’s prison system.
The detainees who escaped Karkh Prison, formerly known as Camp Cropper, included men who served as de facto finance and interior ministers for the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group dominated by al-Qaeda in Iraq, the report added. They were not identified by name.
Iraqis familiar with the investigation said it was examining whether the warden, Omar Khames, had driven the men out of the prison in his car.
