BAGHDAD // An Al Qaeda inmate who escaped from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison led militants who killed his own brother and 10 other people, a general said yesterday.
The attack was the first attributed to any of the more than 500 former prisoners, including senior Al Qaeda members, who escaped last month in a major security breach that analysts say could bolster militant groups.
On Wednesday night, a group of militants went to the house of a policeman in Tikrit, north of Baghdad, dragged him into the garden and executed him, said army Staff Lt Gen Abdulamir Al Zaidi.
The policeman's brother, an Al Qaeda member whose name was not given, led the group of killers, apparently as an act of revenge for informing on him. The militants also bombed the house, and left a car bomb at the scene that exploded after a crowd gathered, killing 10 and wounding 58.
Lt Gen Zaidi said records indicated that the policeman had informed on his brother, who was arrested three years ago for multiple bombings and killings and given two death sentences. It happened when militants launched an assualt on the prison, west of Baghdad, and another in Taji, to the north of the capital, on the night of July 21.
More than 500 inmates escaped and more than 50 prisoners and members of the security forces were killed during the assaults, for which the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and Al Qaeda front group, claimed responsibility
The assaults highlighted the growing reach of militants and the worsening security situation.
"The prison attacks demonstrate that the security forces are poorly resourced and unable to protect what should have been well-defended facilities," said John Drake, an Iraq specialist with AKE Group, a risk management company.
