Al Qa'eda militants launched a pre-dawn breakout from a police station in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi today, triggering a shootout that left 13 people dead.
"During an exchange of fire between prisoners trying to escape and police officers in the station, six policemen and seven prisoners were killed," provincial police chief Tareq al Dulaimi said.
Three prisoners managed to flee but one was re-arrested, Mr al Dulaimi said, adding another four policemen were wounded in the shootout that occurred at 2am at Forsan police station in the centre of Ramadi.
Ramadi police have imposed a curfew in the city following the incident, an interior ministry source said, adding that three fugitive al Qa'eda militants were "emirs" or local chiefs.
The ministry source said a prisoner wanting to go to the toilet was escorted from his cell by a policeman, kicking off what appeared to be a well-planned operation.
"The policeman was overpowered by the inmate who seized his weapon and shot him," the source said.
"He then opened up the other cells and and he and his fellow prisoners grabbed weapons from the police station's armoury, opening fire on the policemen."
The prisoners battled police for two hours before officers managed to regain control of the station, a police official said, adding that the escaped men were identified as Iraqis linked to al Qa'eda.
The recaptured prisoner suffered minor injuries, police said.
Today the streets of Ramadi, a city of 540,000, were deserted and shops were shut as a heavy police presence fanned out in an urgent search for the escapees.
The predominantly Sunni Arab city, capital of Anbar province, was a key al Qa'eda stronghold in the aftermath of the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.
*AFP
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Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
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What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
