Insurgents kill 22 in mortar attack on Baghdad jail

INSURGENTS fired 12 mortars into Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison yesterday, killing 22 detainees and injuring 92.

To the west in Fallujah, meanwhile, Iraqi security forces and civilians, who fled days of street fighting with US Marines, began to return in a critical test of an agreement between US officials and local leaders to fend off an all-out assault by US forces.

All of those killed or injured in the mortar attack on the US-run prison were security detainees, said Col Jill Morgenthaler.

Twenty-five of the prisoners were flown by helicopter for emergency medical treatment, Col Morgenthaler said. There were no reports that any of the casualties were prominent members of Saddam’s regime.

“This isn’t the first time that we have seen this kind of attack. We don’t know if they are trying to inspire an uprising or a prison break,” Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt said.

Meanwhile, a US military-run radio station urged Fallujah residents to hand over heavy weapons to Iraqi security forces or at the mayor’s office.

But it was not yet known whether guerrillas would abide by the call to surrender their arsenals. US commanders have warned Marines might launch an all-out assault if the insurgents don’t disarm.

By midday, up to 200 members of the Iraqi security forces had returned to their jobs.

Dozens more police lined up at a Marine checkpoint to enter the city in the afternoon. Iraqi families lined up to go home.

As part of a deal announced Monday, the military agreed to let 50 families a day back into the city, but people kept showing up after that limit was reached.

Marines turned away about 150 people, said Capt Ed Sullivan, and asked them to come back today.

About a third of the city’s 200,000 people fled in the two-week siege that killed at least 600 Iraqis, according to hospital officials.

Meanwhile, US and coalition military leaders were trying to work out how to fill the gap left by the abrupt decision by Spain and Honduras to withdraw their troops.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan firmly rejected questions about whether the coalition was unraveling. “The coalition is strong,” he said.