AFP - Ten suspected members of Al Qaeda and eight policemen were killed in Baghdad after a night in a prison riot caused by man accused of orchestrating the carnage last year in a church in the capital, has here Sunday morning.
The shooting occurred when security forces fear a resurgence of activity of the Iraqi branch of the Islamist, who might seek to avenge the death of the head of the organization, Osama bin Laden.
The mutiny, which lasted several hours in a detention center for counterterrorism unit of the Ministry of Interior, has killed four officers, including General Moayed al-Sayed, head of the unit for the sector Karrada, and four other officers said on condition of anonymity a senior Iraqi terrorist-cons.
It began when police were questioning an alleged leader of al Qaeda, al-Houthaifa Bataoui to try to obtain information on possible projects of reprisals by the organization.
Mr.Bataoui was accused of having coordinated the bloody attack on the Syrian Catholic Cathedral in Baghdad October 31, 2010, during which 44 worshipers, two priests and seven members of the security forces had died.
Upon his arrest in November with 11 other suspected members of Al Qaeda, it had been presented by the authorities as the leader to Baghdad of the Islamic State in Iraq, the local branch of Al Qaeda.
During his interrogation, Mr.Bataoui arrived shortly after midnight to grab the weapon of a lieutenant he has done before taking hostages and releasing nine other inmates, all members of the cell dismantled in November, the official said cons of terrorism.
The group then went to the office of General Saleh, who was shot in the head. Ten insurgents have seized more weapons and grenades.
Five inmates then tried to flee aboard a police car but were killed by special forces who arrived as reinforcements.The other five were holed up in the prison until the death of the last of them, around 4:30 (0130 GMT), said the official, who said a prisoner had been injured.
"The cell was dismantled in November accused of numerous terrorist operations, not only against the church," he told AFP."Many investigations were under way about them and that is why they were still detained in counter-terrorism unit."
The detention center housed 220 prisoners, including 38 suspected members of Al Qaeda.
An official with the Interior Ministry has reported five deaths, including four policemen and al-Houthaifa Bataoui and six wounded, including five policemen and an insurgent.
After the death of Osama bin Laden, security measures were tightened in Iraq, where al Qaeda still has the ability to conduct operations bloody, despite the setbacks that the organization has wiped recent years.
The Islamist is also suspected of being responsible for the suicide car bomb attack against a police station in Hilla, in which 24 policemen were killed Thursday.
This mutiny may again raise the question of the ability of Iraqi forces to provide security at least eight months of the departure of U.S. forces, which are still 45,000 men in Iraq
