INTERPOL ISSUES GLOBAL ALERT ASKING NATIONS TO HELP TRACK TERROR SUSPECTS FREED FROM PRISON BREAKS

INTERPOL ISSUES GLOBAL ALERT ASKING NATIONS TO HELP TRACK TERROR SUSPECTS FREED FROM PRISON BREAKS

By MARK MAZZETTI August 3, 2013, NYTimes

WASHINGTON — Interpol issued a global alert on Saturday asking member countries to help track hundreds of terrorism suspects who escaped in a wave of prison breaks over the past month — including in Iraq, Pakistan and Libya — and requesting assistance in determining whether any of the operations “are coordinated or linked.”

The alert from Interpol, the global police organization, came two days after the State Department ordered nearly two dozen diplomatic facilities closed in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia based on intelligence that an affiliate of Al Qaeda in Yemen might be plotting attacks in the coming days. On Saturday, several European governments said they, too, were temporarily closing their outposts in Yemen.

It was unclear how the Interpol and State Department alerts might be connected, although the Interpol notice did make reference to the State Department closings and stated Interpol would be “prioritizing all information and intelligence in relation to the breakouts or terrorist plots.”

American and foreign officials believe that Al Qaeda’s Iraq affiliate orchestrated coordinated attacks in late July that freed hundreds of inmates from two prisons in Iraq, including Abu Ghraib. The attackers used mortars to pin down Iraqi forces, employed suicide bombers to punch holes in Iraqi defenses and then sent an assault force to free the inmates, Western officials said at the time.

A few days later, more than 1,000 prisoners escaped under murky circumstances at a prison near Benghazi, Libya. The country’s prime minister blamed local residents for carrying out the jailbreak, an accusation that security officials in Benghazi disputed.

In a separate attack at a century-old prison at Dera Ismail Khan, just outside Pakistan’s tribal belt, as many as 150 fighters blew holes in the perimeter wall and stormed the prison compound. The local authorities said that some of the attackers had been disguised as police officers, and that they had used megaphones to call out the names of specific prisoners and to chant “God is great” and “Long live the Taliban.” Nearly 250 inmates were freed during the attack.

The Interpol alert added to a climate of heightened concern set off Thursday when State Department officials spoke of possible terror plots in the works against Western facilities overseas.

The next day, the department issued a global travel alert for American citizens that warned of the potential for terror attacks by operatives of Al Qaeda and affiliated groups beginning Sunday through the end of August. American officials said the information was based on electronic intercepts of senior Qaeda operatives discussing terror plots.

In an interview with the ABC News program “This Week” to be broadcast on Sunday, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, said the intelligence about the possible plots was “more specific” than in the past. “There’s a significant threat stream, and we’re reacting to it,” he said.

Obama administration officials have spoken optimistically in recent months about a generally diminished terror threat, and during a speech in May, President Obama said Al Qaeda and its affiliate groups had been eviscerated by American counterterrorism operation.

Still, the administration continues to wage an aggressive drone war in Pakistan and Yemen, and monitoring groups said there had been three American strikes in Yemen in the past week.

France, Germany and Britain on Saturday announced the temporary closings of their embassies in Sana, Yemen, citing fears of unspecified attacks on their interests there. A representative of the British Foreign Office called the closing a “precautionary measure,” the BBC reported.

In France, President François Hollande spoke of specific threats but gave no additional details.

“I’ve decided to close the embassy of France in Yemen because, now, we’ve had elements that allowed us to think that these threats were extremely serious,” Mr. Hollande told reporters on Saturday. He did not specify the source or nature of the information concerning potential attacks.

The closing is expected to last “several days,” Mr. Hollande said, adding that French officials and citizens should be particularly “vigilant” in coming weeks if traveling in countries where terror groups are known to operate.

The Interpol alert on Saturday cited coming anniversaries of terror attacks, including this week’s 15th anniversary of the American Embassy bombings in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which killed more than 200 people and wounded 4,000 others.

Ravi Somaiya contributed reporting from New York, and Scott Sayare from Nice, France.