Prisoners killed in Baghdad mortar attack

Twenty-one prisoners died when mortars rained into a Baghdad detention facility today.

US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said 18 mortars hit the coalition’s Baghdad Confinement Facility.

Preliminary reports said all the casualties were prisoners.

He said he did not know if the prisoners were suspected criminals or “security detainees” – Iraqis detained on suspicion of involvement in anti-US violence or in the remnants of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime.