Three US soldiers killed in Ramadi mortar attack
April 17, 2005 Sunday
BAGHDAD: Three US soldiers were killed and seven wounded in a mortar attack on a US military base near Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a statement from the US military said Sunday.
Three of those wounded in the Saturday night attack were critical and required evacuation, the statement added.
The insurgents fled to a nearby mosque after firing several mortar rounds, but Iraqi forces failed to find them on searching the area, military said.
Sun Apr 17, 7:48 AM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi security forces have recaptured the last of 11 prisoners who escaped from a U.S. jail in southern Iraq, the U.S. military said Sunday.
The 11 broke out of Camp Bucca, near the southern town of Umm Qasr, at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday after cutting a hole in the jail's chain-link fence.
Iraqi security forces searched for them at dawn and quickly rounded up 10, but one remained at large. He was eventually captured Saturday afternoon about 15 km (10 miles) from the jail, the U.S. military said.
It was not clear how long the detainees had been at Camp Bucca, which holds about 6,000 prisoners, but the military said they were being held on charges ranging from possessing illegal weapons to attacks on U.S. forces.
"An additional charge of escape will now be added when these detainees are tried before the Central Criminal Court of Iraq," the military said in a statement.
Saturday's jailbreak was believed to be the first successful escape from a U.S. detention facility in Iraq.
It came less than a month after the discovery of a small network of tunnels at the prison, including one more than 600 feet long that reached beyond the perimeter fence. Those tunnels were discovered before anyone could escape.
There has been growing unrest at the prison in recent months. A riot in early April in which 12 prisoners and four U.S. guards were wounded prompted the International Committee of the Red Cross to call for an investigation.
At the end of January, four inmates died and six were wounded when U.S. guards opened fire to quell rioting at the jail, the U.S. military said.