Source: BBC
Fighting raged for several hours after the jails – Abu Ghraib to the west of the capital and Taji to the north – came under attack.
Mortar fire and suicide bombs were used to gain access to the jails, whose inmates include al-Qaeda prisoners.
At least 20 members of the security forces were killed as they struggled to regain control.
A senior Iraqi MP, Hakim Al-Zamili, said that about 500 prisoners had escaped from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
Most of them were senior members of al-Qaeda who had been sentenced to death, he told Reuters news agency.
“It’s obviously a terrorist attack carried out by al-Qaeda to free convicted terrorists with al-Qaeda,” the agency quoted an unnamed security official as saying.
Abu Ghraib was used to torture opponents of the regime during Saddam Hussein’s rule, and its infamy increased in 2004 when photographs were published showing detainees being abused by US guards.
Categories: Asia