Iraq: US guards opened fire during a riot at Iraq's main prison for security detainees yesterday, killing four of them. Six other prisoners were injured.
The riot broke out at the Camp Bucca Theatre Internment Facility near Umm Qasr after a search for contraband in one of the camp's 10 compounds.
"The riot quickly spread to three additional compounds, with detainees throwing rocks and fashioning weapons from materials inside their living areas." the US command said in a statement. "Guards attempted to calm the increasingly volatile situation using verbal warnings and, when that failed, by use of non-lethal force." "After about 45 minutes of escalating danger, lethal force was used to quell the violence," the statement added.
The statement said the riot "resulted from both the use of force to control the situation and from violence by other detainees within the camp during the riot." The cause of the riot and use of lethal force is being investigated.-(AP)