Thread: Interpol Issues Alert on Prison Breaks in 9 Nations

Interpol Issues Alert on Prison Breaks in 9 Nations

By RAVI SOMAIYA
Published: August 3, 2013

Interpol issued a global security alert on Saturday, citing prison breaks across nine nations in the past month, including some in which Al Qaeda is suspected of playing a role, and asked for help to determine whether the operations “are coordinated or linked.”

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The international police organization requested, in a statement, that its 190 member nations “closely follow and swiftly process any information linked to these events and the escaped prisoners.” It also cited the anniversaries of notable terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists, and a similar security alert issued by the State Department on Friday. It said that it would be “prioritizing all information and intelligence in relation to the breakouts or terrorist plots.”

Late last month Al Qaeda’s Iraq affiliate carried out what were described as carefully synchronized operations at two prisons, in Abu Ghraib and Taji. The group used mortars to pin down Iraqi forces, employed suicide bombers to punch holes in their defenses and then sent an assault force to free the inmates, Western experts said at the time.

A few days later, more than 1,000 prisoners escaped under murky circumstances at a prison near Benghazi, Libya.

Shortly after that, as many as 150 fighters armed with guns and grenade launchers blew holes in the perimeter wall of a century-old prison at Dera Ismail Khan, just outside Pakistan’s tribal belt, the Pakistani police said.

Some fighters were disguised as policemen, while others wore suicide-bomb vests, Pakistani officials said of the attack. As they stormed the building, breaking open cells, the attackers used a megaphone to call out the names of specific prisoners and cried, “God is great” and “Long live the Taliban,” according to security officials.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/world/interpol-issues-alert-on-prison-breaks-in-9-nations.html?_r=0

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More than a hundred mortar shells rained down from nowhere. There was fire everywhere. Simultaneously, military units positioned close to the prison units were attacked to preoccupy them and force them to move into positions further away. Four car bombs ...

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