Al-Qaida prisoners try to tunnel out of Iraqi jail

A group of al-Qaida prisoners was caught trying to tunnel out of Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, an official said on Sunday, after the militants said they would step up their fight against the government.

Iraq's Shiite-led government is concerned that Sunni Muslim militants will get a boost from the insurgency in neighboring Syria, where mainly Sunni rebels are battling President Bashar al-Assad.

Jail breaks are common in Iraq and security at prisons was beefed up this week after five militants stormed a police counterterrorism headquarters on Tuesday in an attempt to free al-Qaida prisoners. All five were killed in a long gun battle.

A spokesman for the justice ministry, Haider al-Saadi, said in a statement that 11 "dangerous prisoners" at Abu Ghraib dug down three meters and had tunneled along 20 meters using a frying pan and part of a ceiling fan before they were discovered.

They had fashioned breathing apparatus from soft-drink cans stuck end to end.

Another official in the ministry told Reuters that the men were al-Qaida members. The high security prison, notorious for abuse both during the rule of Saddam Hussein and under US occupation, houses several thousand convicted militants.

"The late shift guard around midnight on Saturday heard some banging and digging under the concrete," Saadi said. "The guards then conducted an arrest operation ... in a professional way by filling the tunnel with water to force them out."

Al-Qaida's Iraqi wing, the Islamic State of Iraq, warned last month that it planned to revitalize its campaign, weakened after years of losses against US troops and Iraqi allies.

Iraqi Sunni Muslim militants have traveled to Syria to support the rebels, security experts say, and the ISI is reaping funds and recruits and fighters are criss-crossing the border.

Air support

Sunni insurgents often attack Shiite targets in Iraq to try to reignite the sectarian violence that killed tens of thousands of people in 2006-07, and topple the Shiite-led government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Baghdad has sent troops and tanks to strengthen security at its 680-km frontier with Syria, and a defense ministry spokesman said on Sunday that forces at the border have now been given air support.

"We have monitoring planes to supply the ground troops with pictures and information. We also have planes and helicopters that can support troops on the ground with fire," Colonel Dhiya al-Wakeel said.

Wakeel said Iraq was receiving no foreign assistance with protecting its border and airspace, a job its military have been responsible for since US troops pulled out in December.

Reuters