Four prisoners and a guard were killed in clashes at a prison in the central Iraqi city of Hilla, during which eight inmates escaped, officials said on Saturday. A policeman and a civilian were also killed in unrelated violence on Saturday, an interior ministry official said.
The clashes at the jail, in which nine people were also wounded, broke out after a prisoner seized a rifle from a guard and killed him, said Mohammed Ali al-Massudi, the governor of Babil province of which Hilla is the capital. Prisoners also set fire to parts of the prison, he said. "The prisoners who escaped are senior members of al Qaeda and Shiite militias," said Haidar al-Zambur.