Al Qaeda claims responsibility for deadly Iraq prison raids

Al-Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility on Tuesday for raids on two high-security prisons on the outskirts of Baghdad Sunday night that killed dozens and set free hundreds of inmates, including senior al-Qaeda leaders.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the al-Qaeda affiliate that controls operations in Iraq and bordering Syria, described the prison operation -- which it dubbed "Conquering the Tyrants" -- as "a bold raid blessed by God," according to a statement posted online.

Iraq's Ministry of Justice said 260 prisoners, including senior al-Qaeda leaders, escaped from Abu Ghraib, on the western outskirts of Baghdad. Officials earlier said 500 prisoners had been freed, but clarified that security forces managed to recapture about 150 of them, Al Jazeera's Jane Arraf reported. Security forces continue to search for hundreds of escaped inmates still at large. 

The operation involved 12 car bombs, military-style barrages of rockets and missiles, suicide bombers and help from prisoners who had managed to obtain weapons on the inside, the group said in its statement.  

Iraqi government officials confirmed that the assault was aided by prison guards working with attackers, and said that at least 25 members of the Iraqi security forces were killed in the attacks, along with at least 21 prisoners and 10 militants at the prisons in Abu Ghraib and Taji.

That tally was varied considerably from numbers provided by al-Qaeda, which said its men killed more than 120 government forces while itself losing only the bombers involved in the suicide attacks.

"There has been a conspiracy between some of the guards of both prisons and the terrorist gangs that attacked the prisons," Iraq's Interior Ministry said in a statement. "That was one of the main reasons for the escalation of events which led to these consequences." 
 
All the escaped prisoners were from Abu Ghraib, where fires and riots by prisoners followed the armed attack on the facility, according to the Justice ministry.

The ministry also said it would reward the warden of Taji prison where it they claimed no inmates managed to escape.

Al-Qaeda also claimed responsibility for other unspecified attacks over the past four months in response to a heavy-handed crackdown on a Sunni protest camp by security forces in the northern town of Hawija on April 23, The Associated Press reported.

The Hawija raid killed 44 civilians and one member of the security forces, according to estimates by the United Nations. It followed months of rallies by Iraq's minority Sunnis against the Shiite-led government over what they contend is second-class treatment and the unfair use of tough anti-terrorism measures.

Violence in Iraq has spiked to the highest level in half a decade in the wake of the Hawija crackdown. More than 3,000 people have been killed since the start of April, including more than 500 since the start of July.

Al Jazeera and wire services