Following Jail Breaks, Baghdad to Transfer Some Inmates to Kurdistan

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Iraqi government is transferring a number of hardcore prisoners from Baghdad to the Fort Suse prison in the autonomous Kurdistan Region because of a worsening security situation in the capital, a Kurdish official told Rudaw.

He said the inmates, from jails in Baghdad and nearby Abu Ghraib, were being transferred as a precautionary measure against the al-Qaeda splinter, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has freed hundreds of hardened militants in a series of daring prison breakouts.

“Swapping prisons was according to a decision by the Iraqi government. The prisoners who will be transferred to Fort Suse have committed serious crimes,” the government source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Those prisoners who are being transferred were formerly at Fort Suse two years ago, but now they are sent back to us because of the bad security situation in Baghdad,” he added.

For months, Iraqi security forces have been locked in fighting with ISIS and other Islamic militants in Anbar province, west of Baghdad. The conflict has forced thousands to flee to other parts of Iraq, mainly to the northern Kurdistan Region which remains the country’s only calm and secure portion.

Recently, ISIS guerrillas raided an Iraqi military camp near the Anbar city of Fallujah and seized tens of armored and military vehicles, later driving them through the town of Abu Ghraib in a defiant show of force.

It is widely believed that the freed prisoners are being used to fuel the insurgency in neighboring Syria, where ISIS and other Islamist groups are locked in the conflict.

The Kurdish official said it is unclear when the prisoners would be returned to Baghdad. “There is no certain time for transferring them back.”

Security officials in Kurdistan reject that the transfer of prisoners would cause any security issues for Kurdistan.

“It is true they are being transferred to Fort Suse because of those armed groups (ISIS), but we believe they would not be of any threat to this region,” said Lieutenant Colonel Tahir, director of the Asayish security forces in Chamchamal, in the Kurdistan Region.

He added that the local Kurdish administration is unaware of conditions at the Fort Suse prison. “It is a federal prison and under the direct supervision of the Iraqi federal government.”

The fortress prison is located between Sulaimani and Dukan, and was built in the 1980s by the former Iraqi regime as a military base.  In 2004, US forces renovated the facility and used it to house important prisoners from the rest of Iraq.