Al Qaeda claimed responsibility on Tuesday for simultaneous raids on two Iraqi prisons and said more than 500 inmates had been set free in the operation, one of its most brazen in Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, formed earlier this year through a merger of al Qaeda's affiliates in Syria and Iraq, said it had stormed Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail and another, some 20 km (12 miles) north of capital, after months of preparation.
Monday's attacks came exactly a year after the leader of al Qaeda's Iraqi branch, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, launched a "Breaking the Walls" campaign that made freeing its imprisoned members a top priority, the group said in a statement. Sunni Islamist militants have in recent months been regaining momentum in their insurgency against Iraq's Shia-led government, which came to power after the US invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.
The group said it had deployed suicide attackers, rockets, and 12 car bombs, killing 120 Iraqi guards and SWAT forces in the attacks in Taji, north of Baghdad, and Abu Ghraib, the prison made notorious a decade ago by photographs showing abuse of prisoners by US soldiers. Interior ministry and medical sources said 29 police and soldiers were killed, and 36 wounded. "In response to the call of the mujahid (holy warrior) Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to seal the blessed plan of 'Breaking the Walls' ... the mujahideen brigades set off after months of preparation and planning to target two of the biggest prisons of the Safavid government," read the statement posted on militant forums.
Safavid is a reference to the dynasty that ruled Iran from the 16th to 18th centuries and is used by hard-line Sunnis as a derogatory term for Shia Muslims. Sectarian tensions across the region have been inflamed by the civil war in Syria, which has drawn in Shia and Sunni fighters from Iraq and beyond to fight against each other. A senior Iraqi security official said security forces were on high alert and had received information that some of the most high-profile al Qaeda operatives who managed to escape were now on their way to Syria. Iraq has tightened border controls to prevent them leaving the country, said the official on condition of anonymity.