Baghdad: An Iraqi police official says 17 detainees have broken out of prison in a northern city.
Police spokesman in Kirkuk city, Brigadier General Sarhat Qadir, said on Friday that 10 of those who escaped from an Interior Ministry detention centre were al Qaeda-affiliated detainees. Qadir said the detainees escaped at dawn from a small window using rope made of blankets. Police started a manhunt to find them, he said. Kirkuk, which is 180 miles (290 kilometres) north of Baghdad, is the main oil hub in northern Iraq. It`s been the scene of sporadic insurgent violence and ongoing tensions between the region`s three main groups — Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen.
Bureau Report