At least 18 people were killed in fighting between security officers and prisoners at a jail in Baghdad today.
Eighteen people, including an al-Qaeda leader and a senior Iraqi counter-terrorism official, died in a battle between inmates and security officers during a jailbreak attempt in Baghdad.
Huthaifa al-Batawi, known as al-Qaeda's "Emir of Baghdad" and the alleged architect of a deadly attack on a Catholic church, was killed along with 10 other senior al-Qaeda militants, said Baghdad's security spokesman Major-General Qassim al-Moussawi.
The skirmish at an Interior Ministry counter-terrorism unit jail complex in Baghdad's central Karrada district began when a prisoner grabbed a gun from a guard, killed several guards and ministry officers, and gave a weapon to other inmates, Maj Moussawi said.
Inmates controlled a section of the facility for several hours before a Swat team brought the siege to an end, security officials said.
The jail housed about 250 inmates, many of them members of al-Qaeda, one source said.
"Security forces and guards responded to the jail of the counter-terrorism department and killed 11 terrorist-prisoners ... including Huthaifa al-Batawi, the Emir of Baghdad, who was in charge of planning the church attack," Maj Moussawi said.
He said seven security officers - including Brigadier Muaid Mahdi, head of investigations at the counter-terrorism unit - were killed and one other was wounded.
Eight terrorism suspects, most facing death sentences, were killed along with nine security officers, three of them senior officials.
Batawi was arrested along with 11 others in late November in connection with the October 31st assault on Our Lady of Salvation church during Sunday mass. Dozens of hostages and police died when Iraqi forces tried to free more than 100 Catholic hostages.
The attack was the bloodiest against Iraq's Christian minority since the 2003 US-led invasion.
Reuters