BAGHDAD, May 8 (UPI) -- A senior al-Qaida suspect in Baghdad grabbed a jailer's gun and set off a battle that left at least 14 people dead, Interior Ministry officials said Sunday.
Inmate Huthaifa al-Batawi was being moved from his cell to an office for questioning when he reportedly grabbed a police officer's gun and killed him, Kuwait's KUNA news agency reported.
That set off a 6-hour gun battle that resulted in the deaths of 14 people, including Batawi. A military general and a lieutenant colonel were also killed in the revolt in which prisoners used weapons from dead prison guards.
Batawi had confessed to being an al-Qaida leader and was charged with masterminding a massacre at a Baghdad Roman Catholic church last October that left more than half of its 150 parishioners dead and the rest wounded, CNN said.
The gunmen in the church siege demanded the release of terror suspects in exchange for the parishioners.
