Gun battle chaos as prisoners leave abuse scandal jail

US soldiers escorting a convoy of prisoners released from the Abu Ghraib jail came under fire today after they stopped in the middle of a road outside the Iraqi capital.

More than a dozen buses had just left the Abu Ghraib facility – the centre of a scandal involving abuse of detainees by American soldiers – when shots were fired from nearby buildings.

Before the exchange, US forces in Bradley fighting vehicles halted the convoy for an unknown reason. Hundreds of relatives parked their cars, blocking traffic in both directions, and rushed the buses to find their loved ones.

Many relatives ignored warnings from the troops who pointed their rifles and yelled at them to stay back.

In previous releases, detainees were escorted all the way to their hometowns.

Today, detainees headed for Baghdad got out of the bus and left in cars that had raced after the buses.

Most of the buses continued on to destinations including Tikrit, Baquoba and Kirkuk. There was no immediate figure for the number of prisoners released, but the US military said they would set up to 600 people free, reducing the number of those still detained to under 3,000.

The US soldiers fired bursts of gunfire after shots were fired, apparently at the convoy. There were no reports of injuries.

Several tanks arrived and monitored the area for another hour, but there was no more fighting.

When the shooting started, the soldiers got into defensive positions, but the shooting ended quickly.

Today’s was the third major release from the facility since the scandal broke over the abuse of detainees in late April.

Meanwhile, gunmen ambushed a convoy carrying a member of the Iraqi Governing Council and her son as they were returning to Baghdad from the holy Shiite city of Najaf. Council member Salama al-Khafaji was unhurt but her son and one bodyguard were killed, her aides said.

The body of the son, Ahmed Fadel, 18, was recovered from a canal into which his vehicle plunged during the ambush, according to the councilwoman’s aide, Baha Hassan.

Al-Khafaji, a Shiite who joined the council in December, was travelling in a Nissan Patrol that was part of a three-car convoy that included another sport utility vehicle and a Honda sedan.

She said her personal bodyguard, who sat behind her, was killed. Another member of her security detail, travelling with two others in the Honda, was injured. Security guards were travelling in the third car.

She said she suspected that Saddam Hussein loyalists were behind the attack.

Elsewhere, two US soldiers were wounded in Kufa despite an agreement to end fighting between US forces and Shiite insurgents.

The two Americans were wounded when their Humvee came under small arms fire, the US military in Baghdad said. There were no further details of the incident.

Gunmen are also believed to have killed two Japanese journalists, 20 miles south of Baghdad. A Japanese government spokesman said two bodies found near the site of the attack were identified as Japanese citizens.

The missing freelance journalists were Shinsuke Hashida, 61, and his nephew, Kotaro Ogawa, 33.