Them’s the breaks, I guess

July 30th, 2013 by Charles Cameron

The Islamic State of Iraq, al Qaeda in Iraq’s political front, claimed credit for a complex assault on the Tasfirat prison in Tikrit that freed more than 100 prisoners, including dozens of terrorists.

In a statement that was released yesterday on jihadist Internet forums and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, the Islamic State of Iraq said it executed the Sept. 27 prison break. The terror group said the operation was part of its “Destroying the Walls” campaign, which was announced at the end of July by Abu Du’a, the Islamic State of Iraq’s emir. In that statement, Abu Du’a said that emphasis would be placed on efforts “to release the Muslim prisoners everywhere.”

Now that’s what you might legitimately call “first priority” targeting.

**

So that’s our background, up to about a week ago when the latest Abu Ghraib prison break took place.

And since then?

Well, as reported on July 27, More than 1,000 inmates escape from Libyan prison near Benghazi in mass jailbreak — and Reuters reports:

Officials said there had been an attack on the facility from the outside, as well as a riot

Interesting.

And AP reported on the 29th, updated early this morning, Pakistani Taliban fighters overwhelmed guards in prison attack:

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — Prison guards said Tuesday that they were totally overwhelmed when around 150 heavily armed Taliban fighters staged a late-night attack on their jail in northwest Pakistan, freeing over 250 prisoners including over three dozen suspected militants.

It was the second such attack by the Taliban on a prison in the northwest within the last 18 months. But even so, the security forces were totally unprepared for the raid, despite senior prison officials having received intelligence indicating an attack was likely.

As Clint Watts said way up above, so say the Pakistani security folk:

Well, at least we didn’t see this coming.

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Posted in al qaida, Charles Cameron, extremists, iraq, Libya, lwj, media, pakistan, Patterns, Taliban, Uncategorized | 5 comments

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5 comments on this post.

  1. Charles Cameron:

    July 30th, 2013 at 7:47 pm

    I’ve just seen Joshua Foust’s excellent write-up of the Iraq prison breaks, Iraq’s Descent Into Madness, With No Americans in Sight, with a significant tie-in to Gregory Johnsen’s reporting on the prison break in Yemen:

    There is reason to worry about last week’s prison break. Gregory D. Johnsen, an expert on al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, wrote in 2009 about how a similar 2006 prison break in Yemen led to the creation of AQAP.
    .
    It’s too soon to tell if the Abu Ghraib break will be as consequential for Iraq. But the Iraqi government faces enormous challenges in responding to al Qaeda’s resurgence without additional outside help

    See also:

    Geoffrey Ingersoll in Business Insider, Recent Prison Breaks Are Fueling Al Qaeda’s Global Comeback
    .
    Alex Strick van Linschoten’s interview from May 2011, The Taliban’s Account of Kandahar Jailbreak (h/t Suzanne Schroeder)

  2. T. Greer:

    July 30th, 2013 at 10:20 pm

    The War Nerd had a good column up this week (would link but they always put their articles behind a paywall after 1 day) on this topic. He suggests the the 400 or so fighters pulled from the prison are headed to Syria, to back up AQI’s claim of seniority over Syrian branches.
    .
    Also worth noting is the sheer complexity of these operations. A prison break – especially an urban one – is hard. You have to some how sneak your 50 to 150 fighters into the prison’s neighborhood without alerting suspicion, physically break through the prison without killing the prisoners, overwhelm the guards, and then hardest of all, make a clean get away with the hundreds of people you just released. American history has plenty of botched prison breaks to its force’s name. These are very well put together attacks.

  3. Charles Cameron:

    August 1st, 2013 at 12:22 am

    Thanks, TGreer. As you say, the column is behind a paywall, but the opening is worth noting:

    The Jihadis thought they’d figured out every angle. They’d been watching Abu Ghraib for months, timing the guards’ shifts, bringing in mortars, RPG launchers, suicide vests, volunteers. But there was one thing they hadn’t counted on: Kate Middleton’s sluggish gestation clock.

    Publicity is the oxygen of terror.

  4. Charles Cameron:

    August 1st, 2013 at 12:23 am

    This up today: 

    Al-Qaida: We will try to free Guantánamo inmates
    .
    Al-Qaida’s leader says a prisoner hunger strike in Guantánamo Bay has revealed the “odious” face of America and claims that the terror network will spare no effort to free prisoners held at the US military-run detention center in Cuba.
    .
    Ayman Al-Zawahri spoke in a 22-minute audio message posted on the Internet on Wednesday, the same day a U.S. Army spokesman said 66 captives were on hunger strike, 42 of them on a list for force-feedings by tubes if they wouldn’t drink a can of nutritional supplement.
    .
    “The strike by our brothers in Guantánamo reveals the real odious and ugly face of America,” Zawahri said. “We pledge God that we will spare no efforts to set them free,” he said
    .
    Most of the 166 prisoners at Guantánamo began a hunger strike earlier this year to protest conditions and their indefinite confinement.
    .
    “We pledge God that we will spare no efforts to set them free along with all our prisoners, on top of them Omar Abdel Rahman, Aafia Siddiqui, Khalid Sheik Mohammed and every oppressed Muslim everywhere,” he added.

    So that’s AQC in on the act, or should I say the intent, too.

  5. Charles Cameron:

    August 3rd, 2013 at 6:56 pm

    And today, Interpol on “prison escapes across nine INTERPOL member countries in the past month alone”:

    INTERPOL issues global security alert advising increased vigilance for terrorist activity
    .
    LYON, France – Following a series of prison escapes across nine INTERPOL member countries in the past month alone, including in Iraq, Libya and Pakistan, the INTERPOL General Secretariat headquarters has issued a global security alert advising increased vigilance.
    .
    With suspected Al Qaeda involvement in several of the breakouts which led to the escape of hundreds of terrorists and other criminals, the INTERPOL alert requests the Organization’s 190 member countries’ assistance in order to determine whether any of these recent events are coordinated or linked.
    .
    INTERPOL is asking its member countries to closely follow and swiftly process any information linked to these events and the escaped prisoners. They are also requested to alert the relevant member country and INTERPOL General Secretariat headquarters if any escaped terrorist is located or intelligence developed which could help prevent another terrorist attack.
    .
    Staff at INTERPOL’s 24-hour Command and Coordination Centre and other specialized units are also prioritizing all information and intelligence in relation to the breakouts or terrorist plots in order to immediately inform relevant member countries of any updates.