Prison break leaves 20 dead in Iraq
About 100 masked gunmen stormed a prison near the Iranian border Tuesday, cutting phone wires, freeing all the inmates and leaving 20 policemen dead.
In all, 33 prisoners were freed in Tuesday’s assault, including 18 insurgents who were detained Sunday during raids by security forces in the nearby villages of Sansal and Arab, police said. It was the capture of those insurgents that apparently prompted the attack. The 15 other inmates were a mix of suspected insurgents and common criminals.
The raid showed the mostly Sunni militants can still assemble a large force, capable of operating in the region virtually at will — even though U.S. and Iraqi military officials said last year that the area was no longer an insurgent stronghold.
On Wednesday, suspected insurgents stormed a police station in the town of Madain south of Baghdad, killing four policemen and wounding at least five, authorities said.
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