Guards suspected in Iraq prison break

BAGHDAD – In a bold escape, 16 prisoners, five of them members of al-Qaida in Iraq awaiting execution, apparently crawled through a window in a Tikrit jail before fanning out in different directions, police and local officials said Thursday.

The escape resulted in a curfew in Tikrit as officials hunted for the men.

At least two fugitives were later captured, one at a checkpoint in Tikrit and another outside Samarra, police said.

Four prison guards were under investigation on suspicion of helping the detainees escape. The prison director was dismissed and detained while under investigation, officials said.

The prisoners had been sharing a cell and escaped through the window late Wednesday after cutting out its metal bars. They managed to get out of the prison yard and swim across a river before separating, police said.

The most prominent escapee was identified as Waleed Ayash, a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq leader, blamed by the Iraqi government for the killing of police and civilians in Dhuluiya, another town in Salahuddin province.

Mutashar Hussain Allawi, Salahuddin’s governor, told the U.S.-funded Alhurra satellite news channel that prison guards were likely to blame for the escape.

The U.S. is in the process of transferring its detainees to Iraqi custody or releasing them. Last week, the U.S. military shut down its largest detention facility, Camp Bucca, in southern Iraq.