18 die in attempted prison break in Baghdad

Abu Huthaifa al-Battawi, Al Qaeda ringleader in Iraq, accused of masterminding an attack on a Baghdad church last year wrestled a gun from a guard at a detention facility, freed his comrades and launched an hours-long assault that ended with 18 people dead, including a top counterterrorism officer.He nearly drove out of the prison house with fellow inmates before being gunned down by guards.The detainees, all accused of belonging to al-Qaida in Iraq, were being moved from a detention room to an interrogation room at the ministry grounds in eastern Baghdad when one of the detainees attacked a guard and wrestled away his weapon.The prisoners then entered the office of Brigadier Muaeid Mohammed Saleh, the head of a department responsible for combating terrorism and organized crime in eastern Baghdad, and shot him along with another officer who was in the room.