Iraq warns drone strikes near Baghdad airport risk security at a prison holding thousands of high-risk Islamic State group detainees transferred from Syria.
BAGHDAD: Iraq has warned that recent drone attacks near Baghdad International Airport pose a direct threat to the security of a nearby prison holding thousands of high-risk Islamic State group detainees.
Justice ministry spokesperson Ahmed Laibi stated that “the areas surrounding Baghdad International Airport and the airport prison (Al-Karkh Central) have been subjected to repeated strikes”.
He added that some strikes hit “near the facility, raising concerns regarding the impact on the security of a prison that houses high-risk terrorist inmates”.
The most intense strikes reportedly occurred on Saturday, impacting “in very close proximity to the prison”.
The Al-Karkh prison, part of the airport complex, currently houses 5,700 IS suspects transferred from Syria by the United States in February.
The facility was formerly a US Army detention centre known as Camp Cropper.
Laibi noted that while security measures are in place, “the frequency of these attacks and the proximity of falling projectiles remain a cause for concern”.
Since the onset of the wider Middle East conflict, Iran-backed armed groups have claimed daily drone and rocket attacks on US bases in Iraq.
Baghdad airport also hosts a US diplomatic facility and previously accommodated troops from the US-led coalition against jihadists.
The Islamic State group overran large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014 before being militarily defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later.
