A coordinated attack featuring mortar fire and suicide bombs aimed at two prisons near Baghdad, Abu Ghraib and Taji, has resulted in the deaths of nearly 50 people and the escape of hundreds of prisoners, including high level members of al Qaeda, according to CNN.
The late night raid on Abu Ghraib began with suicide bombers driving cars packed with explosives into the gates of the prison. Gunmen aimed mortars at guard towers while other militants dug into positions down the road in order to prevent reinforcements from reaching the prison, according to Reuters.
"The Number of escaped inmates has reached 500, most of them were convicted senior members of al Qaeda and had received death sentences," Hakim Al-Zamili, a senior member of the security and defense committee, told Reuters. "The security forces arrested some of them, but the rest are still free."
The attacks occurred while inmates were in the yard for the communal iftar meal that ends the daily fasting of Ramadan. Since they were not enclosed in their cells it was much easier for them to escape, according to the Washington Post.
Reuters reports that the similar attack on the prison in Taji was turned back without any of the prisoners being able to escape, although 16 soldiers and six militants were killed in the fighting.
"This big security failure shows that the top security commanders have failed to sort out any solutions for the ongoing security deterioration," Shawan Mohammed Taha, an Iraqi lawmaker, told the Associated Press. "The terrorists, not the security forces, are now taking the initiative."
Prisoners escaped from the prison in Taji back in January after they were able to steal the weapons of some of the guards. An incident last September at a prison in Tikrit ended with 12 people dead and many prisoners with their freedom, according to the Associated Press.
In addition to the attacks on the prisons an army convoy in Mosul, about 240 miles north of Baghdad, was attacked by a suicide bomber. Twenty-two soldiers were killed in the blast as well as three others in the area, according to Reuters.
"After receiving information from our precious nation's sons about the arrival of a convoy of the Safavid Raafidi Army....the lions of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have confronted them," leaflets left at mosques following the attack read.
July has been an especially bloody month in Iraq with almost 600 people being killed, according to Reuters.
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