BAGHDAD, Jan 14, (Agencies): A dozen terror suspects disguised in police uniforms broke out of an Iraqi jail Friday, prompting a manhunt across the nation’s south for what officials called a dangerous group of top-ranking insurgents linked to al-Qaeda.
At least two of the suspects had formerly been held at Camp Bucca, the sprawling prison on Iraq’s southern border with Kuwait where the US military held tens of thousands of suspected insurgents — all of whom were transferred to Iraqi custody when the prison camp closed in September 2009.
The 12 suspects were awaiting trial when they obtained the police uniforms and walked out of the small, temporary detention center in one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces before dawn in the southern port city of Basra, said three Iraqi security officials.

Iraqi authorities immediately set up checkpoints on two major northbound highways to stop cars, asking all police to display their official ID cards as they urgently tried to track down the suspects. Basra is Iraq’s second-largest city and is located 340 miles (550 kms) southeast of Baghdad.
The 12 were the only detainees held at the palace’s makeshift jail. Intelligence officers had recently finished an investigation into their suspected ties to the Islamic State of Iraq, which is linked to al-Qaeda. It’s not clear how the detainees got the police uniforms. One intelligence official said authorities were looking into whether they had inside help from guards.

The intelligence officer said half of the suspects were recently arrested for stealing cars in Basra and confessed to being involved in multiple bombings since 2004 in Basra and the southern cities of Amarah and Nasiriyah. Their confessions led authorities to the other six suspects, the officer said.
The fugitives were believed to be heading to Baghdad to obtain fake IDs and passports to help them flee Iraq, the intelligence officer said. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Iraq has been struggling to keep terror suspects behind bars since US forces turned over legal custody of their detainees to the government. In July, detainees linked to al-Qaeda escaped at least twice from a Baghdad area prison known as Camp Cropper shortly after the US handed it over to Iraqi authorities.
The jailbreaks deeply embarrassed Iraq’s government, which is eager to demonstrate it can control its justice system without US oversight as American troops prepare to leave the country by the end of the year.

Also Friday, anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr held talks with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani as part of al-Sadr’s push to gain credibility in the nation’s political and religious circles since returning from voluntary exile. There were no details on what the two men discussed during there half-hour meeting at al-Sadr’s ancestral home in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, and aides declined to comment.
The meeting is significant because it highlights al-Sadr’s efforts to portray himself as a mature, disciplined statesman after four years in Iran.
After his return last week, al-Sadr branded the fewer than 50,000 US forces in Iraq as “occupiers” and said he would pressure al-Maliki to force them out by the end of 2011 as planned. Al-Maliki held onto a second term as prime minister this year largely due to al-Sadr’s support.
The radical cleric met earlier this week in Najaf with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s most revered Shiite figure, with whom Talabani also visited on Friday. The president’s office said the two men discussed the plight of Christians under threat in Iraq and concerns about corruption in the county’s newly seated government.

Qaeda
A dozen suspected members of al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq escaped from a prison in the south of the country on Friday morning, police said.
“Twelve members of al-Qaeda escaped in the early hours of the morning from a prison in the centre of Basra,” the capital of the eponymous southern province, a policemen said on condition of anonymity.
“These men stand accused of the attacks carried out recently in Basra,” he said, referring to a car bomb on November 8 in the main southern city, 450 kms (280 miles) south of Baghdad, that left 10 dead and 30 wounded.

The group was among those arrested around two weeks after the attacks but had yet to stand trial.
Police in Basra have mounted a major operation to capture the fugitives, including searching nearby houses and establishing new checkpoints, according to an AFP journalist in the city.
Basra province is crucial to Iraq’s economy as 80 percent of the country’s oil exports, which comprise the vast majority of government income, pass through it before being shipped overseas.
Despite being considered one of the safest provinces in Iraq, attacks do still occur, with the November blast among the most high-profile.
Condemn
Followers of Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr took to the streets on Friday after prayers to condemn a visit by US Vice-President Joe Biden and demand US forces leave the country.
Around 2,000 supporters of the fiery anti-American cleric demonstrated in the town of Kufa, chanting anti-US slogans a day after Biden paid his first visit to Iraq since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was reappointed.

“In our protest, we demand that visits like Biden’s to Iraq should not be repeated and that the occupier leaves,” said Mohammed Abbas, 25, a day labourer.
Sadr’s movement has won a powerful place in Maliki’s new government, with seven ministries.
His clout will make it difficult for Maliki to contemplate an extension of the US military presence beyond the end of the year, when the US forces that ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003 must withdraw under the terms of a security pact.
Biden visited Iraq on Thursday for talks with Iraqi officials, his seventh visit since January 2009. Iraqi officials said he and Maliki did not discuss keeping any US troops in Iraq beyond the withdrawal deadline.
Sadr, whose militia fought fierce battles with US troops after the invasion and was blamed for much of the sectarian bloodshed that gripped Iraq, returned home last week from years of self-imposed exile in Iran.