BAGHDAD: Twenty one prisoners, most of them members of Daesh jailed on terrorism charges, broke out of a prison in northern Iraq but 15 of them have been recaptured, Kurdish security officials said on Thursday.
The fortified jail of Sosa is located near the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya and include mainly militants of the hard-line group who were captured during the fight against Daesh which started in 2014.
Kurdish security officials launched manhunt operations after the break-out late on Wednesday and 15 of the 21 were recaptured, two security officials said. The whereabouts of the other six remains unknown.
Although Sosa jail is located in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, the federal government has full control over the prison.
“Almost all of the convicted inmates who escaped are from Daesh,” said one Kurdish security source.
It was not clear how the inmates managed to escape the highly secured prison.
Daesh, which once occupied a third of Iraq’s territory, has been largely defeated in the country but still poses a threat along the border with Syria.
The group has resorted to guerrilla tactics since it abandoned its goal of holding territory and creating a self-sufficient caliphate that straddles Iraq and Syria.
21 Daesh militants escape Iraqi jail, most recaptured
21 Daesh militants escape Iraqi jail, most recaptured
- Kurdish security officials launched manhunt operations after the break-out late on Wednesday and 15 of the 21 were recaptured
- The group has resorted to guerrilla tactics since it abandoned its goal of holding territory and creating a self-sufficient caliphate that straddles Iraq and Syria
Lebanon’s Tripoli building collapse kills 14
The death toll from the collapse of residential buildings in the Lebanese city of Tripoli rose to 14 after search and rescue operations ended, Lebanon’s National News Agency said on Monday citing the civil defense chief.
Civil defense director general Imad Khreiss said rescue teams recovered 14 bodies and rescued eight people from the rubble of the collapsed buildings in the northern city’s Bab Al-Tabbaneh neighborhood.
Officials said on Sunday that two adjoining buildings had collapsed.
Abdel Hamid Karameh, head of Tripoli’s municipal council, said he could not confirm how many people remained missing. Earlier, the head of Lebanon’s civil defense rescue service said the two buildings were home to 22 residents.
A number of aging residential buildings have collapsed in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city, in recent weeks, highlighting deteriorating infrastructure and years of neglect, state media reported, citing municipal officials.
