Four al Qaeda Rebels Escaped from Camp Cropper in Iraq

Thursday Iraqi Minister of Justice announced that 4 dangerous Al Qaeda members which were in a prison near Baghdad escape. This happened in a week after the US gave the administration of the prison to the government of Iraq. The Justice Minister was embarrassed for the government who is trying to show that is trustworthy and capable. The four terrorist who escaped from the high security prison also know as Camp Cropper which the US gave to the government of Iraq last week being the last one of the prisons that US supervised, said Dara Noureddin. If you are interested in how the US returned Camp Cropper, read more here.

This is the second incident happened this weekend which means that the Iraqi government is not able to take care of the country while US troops are going home starting next week.

The US gave the authorities of Iraq the Camp Cropper prison on July 15. This prison was the one who kept Saddam Hussein and many dangerous Al Qaeda members and Saddam’s men from the former government. The significance of the giving is very important because is one of the first real big step for leaving the full control of the country to their authorities. This gesture made a country who is destroyed by bombings and assassination every day to be considered a capable and at the beginning of rehabilitation.

The Iraqi intelligence a the Intern Ministry believe that the four man who were identify to be Al Qaeda members were helped by the prison administration to escape.

Tuesday on a simple check at the prison, the guards discovered that the four are missing and went immediately to rapport to the head office and realized that he was missing to.
Sources say that the man working in the head office ran with the four prisoners.

One of the terrorists that have escaped from Camp Cropper is belived that he is a high hierarchy of Al Qaeda and known as minister of finance in the Islamic Iraq.

The fugitives were officially listed in the prisons records as Malik Nazzal, Hussein Ahmed, Qais Azmi, Mohammed Hamid but the rebels when they join Al-Qaeda take fighting name, which means that their identity are still unknown.

When the US gave the administration of the prison to the Iraqi authorities, 1, 500 prisoners were transferred from the US custody, the US military still has the authority of 200 high level security prisoners, because the government of Iraq asked for, who are kept in another section of the prison called Compound 5.

A lot of dangerous prisoners like Tariq Aziz who was the foreign Minister in Saddam Hussein government and a messenger to the world, have been transferred from the prison to the Compound 5.

The Iraqi Intelligence said that the government and the authorities demitted more officials that were in charge with the prison because of the fear of other prisoners escape.

The Intern Minister will form a committee who will investigate the happening at the Camp Cropper. The authorities believes that the prisoners were helped by the head of the unit that imprisoned them, he gave them uniforms to blend with the army and with a special high level pass permit he escorted them out of the prison.

Cam Cropper also known by the Iraqi name called Karkh Prison has a capacity of 4, 000 prisoners supervised by 700 military and 100 auxiliary men. The camp costs 48 million dollars and was used by the US military forces since April 2003.

When Karkh Prison was handed to the Iraqi authorities, there was another escape of a dangerous criminal who murdered a British man.

Iraq is a country who gained a lot in the security department and that boosted the confidence of the country but even now after the majority of the attacks have been stopped, they still must be prepare for the challenges that will come.

Thursday in the Green Zone, three men who were contractors for the US security department were killed by a rocket. The Green zone is a secure and reinforced location in Baghdad where the government of Iraq and the US embassy are stationed. The rocket injured 15 men including two American.

Two years ago the rocket attacks were several every day against the governmental buildings, now they are very rare and the majority of them are intercepted in time.

On the 4th of July when the Vice President Joe Biden was visiting the Green Zone the building was attacked by at least 4 mortar rounds, there were no casualties reported.

In the north of Iraq, in Mosul, where the Al Qaeda has a hideout, a bombing attack and some shooting made a Sunni cleric, two civilians, two policemen, and a brigadier general of the army victims of terrorism.

Do you think that Iraq will manage without the US forces stationed in their country for years?