Not less than 1,000 inmates of the Iraqi Central Prison were freed today as hundreds of militants took forceful control of key portions in Mosul, Northern Iraqi city.
Senior police officials said the gunmen who are believed to be members of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIS, also took control of the Mosul Airport, the local television stations, and the Governor’s offices.
Mosul is mainly a Sunni city that is about 420 kilometres north of Baghdad, the nation’s capital. It is considered one of the most dangerous cities in Iraq, as Al Qaeda-linked groups are very active there.
Security forces believe the ISIS, a Syria-based extremist group that is affiliated to Al-Qaeda terrorist sect, is out on a revenge mission as they had killed more than 50 members of the terrorists on Saturday in clashes that arose in the West of Mosul.
The Forces added that freeing so many prison inmates pose more danger for the security of the country, which has been rocked by political and sectarian violence for months.
Speaking at a news conference in reaction to the attack, Osama Al-Nujaifi, Speaker of the Iraq’s Parliament said the Central Government is to blame as Security Forces abandoned Mosul at the initial stage of the clash.
“The presence of these terrorists in the second biggest province in Iraq threatens not only the security and unity of Iraq but all of the Mid-East region and neighboring countries,” Nujaifi whose brother Atheel al-Nujaifi is the governor of Nineveh province said.
“It will not stop at the borders of Nineveh but will reach all of Iraq” he added.
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