14 Inmates Charged with ‘Terrorism’ Escape North Iraq Prison

Fourteen prisoners charged with "terrorism" escaped from a prison in the north Iraq city of Mosul on Thursday, a police officer said, in the latest jailbreak in Iraq.

"Thirty-five prisoners tried to escape from a prison in al-Faisaliyah" in central Mosul, said Colonel Mohammed al-Jaburi, of the Nineveh province police. Security forces "arrested 21 of them, but 14 others were able to escape from the prison," Jaburi said.

All 35 were charged with terrorism-related offences, he said, adding that an open-ended curfew was instituted in Mosul around 8:00 am (05:00 GMT) on Thursday due to the jailbreak.

No clashes took place during the escape, he said.

An interior ministry official confirmed that 35 prisoners had attempted to escape in Mosul, but that 21 of them were apprehended.

Jailbreaks and prison unrest are relatively common in Iraq.

Officials said on August 6 that four prisoners and a guard were killed in clashes at a prison in the central Iraqi city of Hilla, during which eight inmates escaped.

Six Iraqi police and 11 inmates were killed in a Baghdad jail mutiny in May, while 12 suspected al-Qaida members escaped from prison in the southern city of Basra in mid-January. At least two of the Basra escapees have been recaptured.