Detainees don police uniforms in Iraq jailbreak

[January 14, 2011]  BAGHDAD (AP) -- A dozen terror suspects disguised in police uniforms broke out of an Iraqi jail Friday, prompting a manhunt across the nation's south for what officials called a dangerous group of top-ranking insurgents linked to al-Qaida.

At least two of the suspects had formerly been held at Camp Bucca, the sprawling prison on Iraq's southern border with Kuwait where the U.S. military held tens of thousands of suspected insurgents -- all of whom were transferred to Iraqi custody when the prison camp closed in September 2009.

The 12 suspects were awaiting trial when they obtained the police uniforms and walked out of the small, temporary detention center in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces before dawn in the southern port city of Basra, said three Iraqi security officials.

Iraqi security forces immediately set up checkpoints on two major northbound highways to stop cars, asking all police to display their official ID cards as they urgently tried to track down the suspects. Basra is Iraq's second-largest city and is located 340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad.

The 12 were the only detainees held at the palace's makeshift jail. Intelligence officers had recently finished an investigation into their suspected ties to the Islamic State of Iraq, which is linked to al-Qaida. It's not clear how the detainees got the police uniforms. One intelligence official said authorities were looking into whether they had inside help from guards.

The intelligence officer said half of the suspects were recently arrested for stealing cars in Basra and confessed to being involved in multiple bombings since 2004 in Basra and the southern cities of Amarah and Nasiriyah. Their confessions led authorities to the other six suspects, the officer said.

The 12 were believed to be heading to Baghdad to obtain fake IDs and passports to help them flee Iraq, the intelligence officer said. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Iraq has been struggling to keep terror suspects behind bars since U.S. forces turned over legal custody of their detainees to the government. In July, detainees linked to al-Qaida escaped at least twice from a Baghdad area prison known as Camp Cropper shortly after the U.S. handed it over to Iraqi authorities.

The jailbreaks deeply embarrassed Iraq's government, which is eager to demonstrate it can control its justice system without U.S. oversight as American troops prepare to leave the country by the end of the year.

[Associated Press; By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA]

Associated Press writers Saad Abdul-Kadir and Lara Jakes in Baghdad contributed to this report.

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