Iraq |
General among 17 killed in 'Qaeda mutiny' at Baghdad jail |
2011-05-09 |
[Pak Daily Times] The accused criminal mastermind of last year's Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... church siege overpowered a policeman while being led to questioning, sparking a jail mutiny Sunday that killed six police, including a general, and 11 inmates. The daring incident by suspected al Qaeda cut-throats came as security was tightened in Iraq, where authorities fear reprisals after the death of the late Osama bin Laden ... who is no longer with us, and won't be again... in a US special forces raid in Pakistain on May 2, with 24 coppers already having been killed in a car boom south of Storied Baghdad on Thursday. Among the coppers killed in Sunday's incident was Brigadier General Moayed al Saleh, the head of counter-terrorism for Storied Baghdad's central Karrada district; a lieutenant colonel and two first lieutenants, the capital's security front man Major General Qassim Atta said at a news conference. "This incident was planned well in advance," Atta told news hounds, putting the corpse count at six police and 11 inmates. "The criminals were high-level members of the Islamic State of Iraq (al Qaeda's front group). The prime minister has ordered a committee to investigate the incident." One of the inmates killed was Huthaifa al Batawi, who stands accused of planning the October 31 siege on a Storied Baghdad church in which 46 hostages and seven security force members died, and who triggered the prison uprising. According to Atta, Batawi overpowered the police lieutenant who was leading him to an interrogation room at around 10:00 pm (1900 GMT) on Saturday, taking his weapon and shooting him dead. Batawi, who was the Storied Baghdad chief of al Qaeda's front group in Storied Baghdad when he was jugged on November 27, then freed several other prisoners, all of whom were jugged with him in connection with the church massacre. The group killed Saleh and several other officers before a group of four attempted to flee the prison, at which point Iraqi police reinforcements arrived and killed the would-be escapees. The remainder holed up inside the prison and the mutiny did not end until that group was killed at around 4:30 am (0130 GMT) on Sunday. "Their cases had been transferred to the courts on April 24 but yesterday, the major crimes unit received a tip about a new case against them," Atta said. "So, Brigadier General Moayed called for Huthaifa to be interrogated. When the police went to get him, he overpowered him." A senior Iraqi counter-terrorism official largely verified Atta's account, but said that five detainees attempted to escape in a police vehicle before being bumped off. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , also put the corpse count at six police and 10 inmates killed. He added that two police were seriously maimed. He had earlier said that eight coppers and 10 inmates were killed, but revised that later Sunday. |
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Iraq | |
Qaida mutiny in Baghdad jail kills 18 | |
2011-05-09 | |
BAGHDAD: The accused mastermind of last year's bloody Baghdad church siege grabbed a policeman's gun mid-interrogation on Sunday and led a jail mutiny that left eight police, including a general, and 10 inmates dead.
Among the eight policemen killed in Sunday's incident was Brigadier General Moayed al-Saleh, the head of counter-terrorism for Baghdad's central Karrada district; a lieutenant colonel and two first lieutenants, a senior counter-terrorism official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "This cell, which was dismantled in November, was accused of a large number of terrorist operations -- not just the one against the church," the official said. "Several investigations were ongoing against them, and that's why they were still being held by this unit." An interior ministry official, who did not want to be named, said that Huthaifa al-Batawi, who stands accused of planning the October 31 siege on a Baghdad church in which 46 hostages and seven security force members died, was among those killed. He said, without elaborating, that six other people were wounded in the uprising at the interior ministry detention facility in Baghdad. According to the counter-terrorism official, Batawi, who was the Baghdad chief of al-Qaida's front group in Baghdad when he was arrested on November 27, was being interrogated because officials were seeking intelligence of possible attacks in the wake of bin Laden's death. Batawi managed to grab the weapon off the first lieutenant who was questioning him and shot him dead, before taking hostages and releasing a group of fellow inmates. | |
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Iraq |
Iraq Forces Thwart Attack Against French Embassy |
2010-12-01 |
[An Nahar] Iraqi forces have thwarted an attempt by a jacket wallah to blow up a vehicle by the French embassy in Storied Baghdad, an Iraqi general told Agence France Press on Monday. The attack, if carried out, would have been the second by bad boy groups against foreign embassies this year, after three jacket wallahs detonated explosives-packed cars nearly simultaneously against regional and European missions, killing 30 people on April 4. "We aborted a car boom attempt led by a jacket wallah against the French embassy," Brigadier General Ahmed Abu Rheef, the director of internal affairs and security at the interior ministry, said. Abu Rheef did not give details of when or how the attack was stopped, but said that the group attempting to bomb the embassy was the same as the one that took dozens of worshippers hostage at a Storied Baghdad cathedral. The October 31 church siege ended in the deaths of 44 worshippers, two priests and five security force members in an attack which sparked an international outcry. Around 60 other people were maimed in the bloodbath, and the five forces of Evil who carried it out were also killed. Al-Qaeda said it launched the church attack to force the release of converts to Islam it said were being nabbed by the Coptic Church in Egypt. Days later it declared Christians everywhere "legitimate targets." The French embassy declined to comment on the news of the aborted bomb plot when contacted by Agence France Press. The interior ministry had informed officials from several countries of the foiled attack at a briefing earlier on Monday, according to a European diplomat with knowledge of the meeting. The ministry told them that the arrests this month of a dozen people suspected of helping to carry out the church attack directly led to the thwarting of the embassy plot. "During the meeting, someone raised the fact that the arrests which were made prevented a bomb attack from happening at the French embassy," the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. ... for fear of being murdered... Among those apprehended following the church seige were Huthaifa al-Batawi, the Storied Baghdad chief of the Islamic State of Iraq, the Al-Qaeda front group which carried out the attack, while senior ISI leader Ammar al-Najadi was killed, an interior ministry official said on Saturday. |
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Iraq | |
12 caught over Baghdad church siege | |
2010-11-29 | |
[Iran Press TV] Twelve suspected snuffies have been jugged in connection with a deadly attack on a Christian cathedral in Storied Baghdad last month, Iraq's interior minister says.
The October 31 attack on the Sayidat al-Nejat Cathedral, or Our Lady of Salvation Church, left 52 people dead and 60 others maimed. The gunnies seized the church during Sunday mass, demanding the release of al-Qaeda prisoners. The incident lasted nearly four hours until the police intervened. The Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni bully boy umbrella group with ties to al-Qaeda in Iraq, grabbed credit for the Storied Baghdad church siege. Iraqi security forces made the 12 arrests in raids in the capital's western and eastern suburbs. Among those nabbed are Huthaifa al-Batawi, the Storied Baghdad chief of the Islamic State of Iraq and the movement's leader Ammar al-Najadi, AFP said. According to Iraq's Interior Ministry, al-Batawi has confessed to his role in the church siege. It is also believed that members of the bully boy group had entered the heart of the Iraqi capital from Soddy Arabia. Although Iraqi churches have faced a number of attacks in recent years, the incident was the first that involved a prolonged hostage situation. | |
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