Iraqi city under curfew after prison break

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

TIKRIT, Iraq, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Iraqi authorities imposed a vehicle ban and a curfew in a city north of Baghdad on Thursday after more than a dozen suspected al Qaeda militants climbed through a ventilation duct and broke free from jail.

Police officials said security forces were scouring the city of Tikrit, 150 km (95 miles) north of Baghdad, for the fugitive prisoners, some of whom had been sentenced to death for working with Sunni Islamist group al Qaeda.

The escape, in which at least one local official said police may have played a role, raises additional questions about Iraq's security forces and its penitentiary system as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw from the country by the end of 2011.

One of the men who escaped on Wednesday evening was recaptured by Thursday afternoon, police said, but 15 others remained at large.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSLO109735

[Harry Monroe]

1. Mike Scholfield and Lincoln Burrows are at it again!!

I smell a TV series, "Prison Break, Tikrit"