Iraq Watch: March 21, 2006

Militants Launch Assault on Prison Northeast of Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents early Tuesday launched a brazen assault on a prison compound located about 60 miles northeast of the capital in Muqdadiyah. The 100-man strong guerilla raid resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Iraqi security forces. The militants were also able to free 33 prisoners in the process. At least 10 insurgents were killed in the intense fighting.

Reinforcements were hobbled by an array of obstacles including sabotaged telephone lines and a gauntlet of roadside bombs planted by the assailants.

Muqdadiyah, a religiously mixed city of some 100,000, is situated near the Iranian border in the often-restive Diyala province.

The Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella insurgent organization, which is comprised of seven militant groups including the infamous al-Qaida in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the sophisticated prison ambush according to AFP.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced that a MND-B soldier was slain by small-arms fire Tuesday while on patrol in western Baghdad.

In other violence Tuesday, a roadside bomb killed two Iraqi policemen and injured another in Baqouba.

Police reported finding eight executed bodies thrown under a Baghdad highway. The corpses were blindfolded and bore signs of torture according to the AP. Elsewhere, in Suwera, authorities discovered four more bodies along the banks of the Tigris River.

Also in Baghdad, an employee of the mayor's office was gunned down on his way to work in the volatile Dora district of the city.