Baghdad: An Al-Qaeda affiliate Iraqi man grabbed gun from a police officer while being moved from a detention cell Sunday and opened fire, killing at least eighteen people.
Interior ministry said in a statement that the man, Huthaifa al-Batawi, the “mastermind, direct supervisor and planner” of the October 2010 siege at Church that left more than 70 people dead and 75 more wounded.
Al-Batawi, who was handcuffed, was being moved from a detention cell inside the Interior Ministry compound to an office where he was to be questioned in the investigation when he grabbed the gun, the ministry said.
Four officers, including a general and a lieutenant colonel and 14 inmates were among those killed, the ministry confirmed. Six others, including another suspect in the church siege, were wounded.
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