Iraq prison convoy attacked

Gunmen attacked a prisoner convoy north of Baghdad on Thursday, officials said, setting off a gun battle with Iraqi troops in which 52 prisoners and eight soldiers were killed. The attack came hours before parliament elected Kurdish politician Fouad Masoum to the largely ceremonial post of president.

This appointment was part of country's troubled political transition that has seen repeated delays despite Iraq's struggle against militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had also touched down in Baghdad on Thursday, on a trip to encourage politicians to form a more inclusive government and thus soothe sectarian tensions.

Some of the explosions could reportedly be heard in Baghdad, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) to the south. The circumstances surrounding the dawn attack were not immediately clear, but one security source said the convoy had set off at short notice after mortar rounds were fired at the army bases in Taji where the prisoners were being held. The interior ministry said the convoy then encountered an ambush.

"At least 60 people, prisoners and policeman, were killed in a suicide attack followed by several IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and shooting," an interior ministry official told the AFP news agency.

It was not immediately clear whether militants or police had killed the prisoners, or whether ISIS fighters were behind the attack.

Past jailbreak attempts

The primarily Sunni Muslim members of ISIS have staged several past jailbreaks, including an assault on two Baghdad prisons one year ago that free more than 500 inmates. ISIS in June shortened its name to "Islamic State" and declared an Islamic "caliphate" after claiming second most populous Iraqi city, Mosul, and other territory straddling Iraq and Syria.

A Human Rights Watch report published earlier this month accused Iraqi security forces and allied Shia militias of killing at least 255 Sunni prisoners since June 9 as they fled from advancing ISIS forces.

Amnesty International published a similar report saying Shiite militiamen killed more than 40 Sunni prisoners in the northwestern town of Baqouba, fearing a jailbreak attempt, when the prison facility came under attack from ISIS.

Ban appeals for 'thoroughly inclusive government'

The UN chief's arrival in Baghdad, fresh from equally difficult talks in Jerusalem, followed shortly after news of the attack.

"Iraq is facing an existential threat but it can be overcome by the formation of a thoroughly inclusive government," Ban Ki-moon said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. "It must be a government in which all Iraqis feel represented."

Under Iraq's post-Saddam Hussein power-sharing government agreement, the prime is a member of the Shiite majority, the speaker of the house is a Sunni and the largely ceremonial role of president is held by a Kurd. Critics of the system argue that the real power currently lies with the prime minister and his parliamentary bloc, while al-Maliki's critics hold him responsible for alienating Kurds and Sunnis alike.

A senior leader in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Fouad Massoum, was elected the new president on Thursday, a day after receiving endorsement from Kurdish parliamentarians. Salim al-Jubouri, considered a moderate Sunni, had already been named speaker as Iraq seeks a new power-sharing government. The final appointment, naming a new prime minister, is liable to prove the most problematic.

msh/dr (AFP, dpa, Reuters)