Jail left with no prisoners as 12 detainees escape

A DOZEN terror suspects disguised in police uniforms strolled out of an Iraqi jail yesterday — even though the 12 were the only detainees held at the makeshift prison.

The escape prompted a manhunt across the nation’s south for what officials called a dangerous group of top-ranking insurgents linked to al-Qaida.

At least two of the suspects had formerly been held at Camp Bucca, the sprawling prison on Iraq’s southern border with Kuwait where the US military held tens of thousands of suspected insurgents — all of whom were transferred to Iraqi custody when the prison camp closed in September 2009.

The 12 suspects were awaiting trial when they obtained the police uniforms and walked out of the small, temporary detention centre in one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces before dawn in the southern port city of Basra, said three Iraqi security officials.

Iraqi authorities immediately set up checkpoints on two major northbound highways to stop cars, asking all police to display their official ID cards as they urgently tried to track down the suspects.

The 12 were the only detainees held at the palace’s makeshift jail. Intelligence officers had recently finished an investigation into their suspected ties to the Islamic state of Iraq, which is linked to al-Qaida. It’s not clear how the detainees got the police uniforms. One intelligence official said authorities were looking into whether they had inside help from guards.

The deputy head of the Basra provincial council, Ahmed al-Sulaiti, told reporters the government ordered the detention of all the security officials who were supposed to be protecting the palace compound from which the detainees escaped.

The intelligence officer said half of the detainees were recently arrested for stealing cars in Basra and confessed to being involved in multiple bombings since 2004 in Basra and the southern cities of Amarah and Nasiriyah. Their confessions led authorities to the other six suspects.

The fugitives were believed to be heading to Baghdad to obtain fake IDs and passports to help them flee Iraq, the intelligence officer said.