Iraq keeps wary eye on prison security after Islamic State jailbreak in Syria
The dire effects of massive jailbreaks a decade prior and the thousands of Islamic State convicts and suspects in Iraqi detention have induced greater attention to facilities in the country following an attack across the border.
Iraq has stepped up monitoring of several of its prisons after hundreds of alleged Islamic State (IS) fighters escaped detention facilities in northeastern Syria in an attack on Jan. 20.
The spokesman for the Iraqi commander-in-chief stated on Jan. 30 that units from the country’s Counterterrorism Services (CTS) had between Jan. 22 and Jan. 30 engaged in a “major campaign to inspect” prisons in several Iraq provinces.
The prisons, he said, included ones in the cities of Baghdad, Nasiriyah, Basra, and Taji, as well as ones in the Babil and Nineveh provinces.
Iraq holds tens of thousands of prisoners either convicted or accused of involvement in IS. It has been repeatedly been criticized for extreme overcrowding and poor conditions in many of its detention facilities.
