At the end of September 2012, Iraq witnessed the largest
prison break in recent history. Over 100 inmates allegedly got out of the Tasfirat prison in Tikrit, Salahaddin province. Iraq has seen a number of
escapes before, but nothing of this magnitude. Al Qaeda in Iraq later took
responsibility, while Iraq’s political class argued over who was responsible.
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| Tasfirat Prison in Salahaddin after the detainee escape (Iraqi News) |
Al Qaeda in Iraq said it was behind the Tasfirat prison
escape. Its front organization, the Islamic State of Iraq posted a comment on an Islamist website in October that it was responsible. That was
predictable given the nature of the operation. The jailbreak started with a car
bomb going off outside of the facility, with three more found close by. This
pointed to coordination with outside insurgents. Prisoners were said to have
gotten weapons smuggled into the prison during family visits as well. It was no
surprise then that Al Qaeda would be behind such a bold attack. Of the 100 or
so detainees that got out, 70 are still supposedly at large, although a few are being picked up here and there. Al Qaeda in Iraq is in the midst of its
Breaking Walls campaign that it announced during the summer. This is being
marked by an increase in security incidents, and headline grabbing operations
like the one seen in Tikrit.
Such a daring and successful attack has led to
recriminations amongst Iraqi officials and politicians. For one, Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani’s representative in Karbala, Abdul Mahdi al-Karbali condemned the escape, stating that it happened all too often in Iraq. An
Iraqi security analyst told Al-Mada paper that he thought the local security
forces colluded with the insurgents, since they did nothing when the car bomb
went off outside of the prison. A lawmaker from the Iraqi National Movement (INM) stated that the guards at Tasfirat were corrupt, and likely bought off by
militants. Deputy Interior Minister Adnan Asadi confirmed that the Tasfirat
staff were involved, and said that all the officials at the facility had been
arrested for interrogation. Two parliamentarians from the National Movement
were also accused of helping prisoners get out. Allegedly after the legislature
failed to pass the Amnesty Law, some of the detainees at Tasfirat lost their
chance to be legitimately released, so they decided to escape instead. Finally,
the Iraqi cabinet announced that they would segregate the general prison population from terrorists, and have the latter guarded by the Federal Police. All of these comments showed how dysfunctional Iraq’s prison system is. Its
guards and staff cannot be trusted. Politicians have regularly been accused of
colluding with militants, and helping them escape. As a result, breakouts have
become a common occurrence in the country.
In a way, Iraq’s prison system is symbolic of the state of
the country. They are corrupt, inefficient, and dangerous. In the last three
years there have been five major prison breaks, but nothing like what happened
at Tasfirat. Getting around 100 inmates out was a huge coup for Al Qaeda in
Iraq. That was a big embarrassment for the authorities. Unfortunately, the
accusations that followed are likely the only thing that’s likely to happen as
a result. Iraq’s government is full of problems, few of which it has the
capability to fix at this time. Its prisons are just a striking example of
that.
SOURCES
AIN, “Alwani: Prisoners’ escape from prisons reflects big
defect in security system,” 10/1/12
- “CoM decides to isolate detainees of terrorism charges in
special prisons,” 10/2/12
Shafaq News, “Interior Ministry: 70 fugitives from Tikrit
prison free,” 10/6/12
- “Joint forces of the army and police arrest two fugitives
from Tikrit prison,” 10/6/12
Al-Tamimi, Iyad, “Sources for the “long”: two deputies were
involved smuggling Iraqi prisoners Tikrit,” Al-Mada, 10/6/12
Yacoub, Sameer, “Al-Qaida claims attack wave and jailbreak
in Iraq,” Associated Press, 10/5/12
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