Qaeda mutiny kills 17 at Baghdad jail

BAGHDAD: The accused mastermind of last year's Baghdad church siege overpowered a policeman while being led to questioning, sparking a jail mutiny Sunday that killed six police, including a general, and 11 inmates.

The daring incident by suspected Al-Qaeda insurgents came as security was tightened in Iraq, where authorities fear reprisals after the death of Osama bin Laden in a US special forces raid in Pakistan on May 2, with 24 policemen already having been killed in a car bomb south of Baghdad on Thursday.

Among the policemen killed in Sunday's incident was Brigadier General Moayed al-Saleh, the head of counter-terrorism for Baghdad's central Karrada district; a lieutenant colonel and two first lieutenants, the capital's security spokesman Major General Qassim Atta said at a news conference.

"This incident was planned well in advance," Atta told reporters, putting the death toll at six police and 11 inmates.

"The criminals were high-level members of the Islamic State of Iraq (Al-Qaeda's front group). The prime minister has ordered a committee to investigate the incident." (AFP)