“Allahu Akbar… Allahu Akbar,” chants echo inside Cropper Prison, where ISIS members recently transferred from Syria to Iraq are being held, each time Camp Victory, which hosts U.S. forces, comes under rocket or drone attack.
The base, located near Baghdad International Airport west of the capital, has been subjected to daily bombardment for nearly three weeks by Iran-aligned Shiite factions supporting Tehran in its war with the United States and Israel.
On the surface, the strikes targeting the airport appear to be part of a broader regional conflict that extends beyond Iraq. But for security officials in Baghdad, the repeated shelling near a facility holding thousands of ISIS detainees raises concerns about the integrity of the detention system itself, not just potential material damage.
“ISIS inmates chant ‘takbir’ because they believe the situation outside the prison has become unstable and that there may be an opportunity to escape,” said an officer in Iraq’s Interior Ministry.
The officer, who is interrogating ISIS members transferred from Syria as part of a large investigative committee within the ministry, said he has heard “strange ideas from some of them.”
“In an interrogation I conducted in the middle of Ramadan with one detainee, he spoke as if he would be out of prison at any moment after a rocket strikes the prison gate,” the officer told Alhurra.
These concerns are heightened by prisoners’ reactions to events outside the prison walls. According to security sources, this could encourage attempts at rebellion or escape.
Iraqi authorities fear a repeat of the 2013 Abu Ghraib prison break, when hundreds of al-Qaeda detainees escaped after the facility was attacked by suicide bombers, mortar fire, and large groups of armed militants.
Months later, ISIS seized control of roughly one-third of Iraq and declared the establishment of the “Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham” under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was later killed in a U.S. airborne operation on October 27, 2019, in Syria’s Idlib Governorate.
Concerns among relevant authorities have grown following repeated strikes around Baghdad International Airport, where the central Karkh prison—known as Cropper Prison—is located.
On March 15, Iraq’s Justice Ministry expressed concern that strikes near the prison could impact its security, noting in a statement that it “houses highly dangerous inmates.”
Within Iraqi security circles, officials are not speaking of an imminent collapse of the protection system. The prison remains surrounded by multiple layers of security. However, concern centers on a more complex scenario: What if the bombardment near the facility continues? What if one of the strikes hits watchtowers or electronic surveillance systems?
An official in the Iraqi Prime Minister’s office told Alhurra that there is “precise” intelligence indicating discussions in the prison about “exploiting the shelling”—a reference to attacks on the U.S. base.
According to the official, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, dangerous inmates like those held in the prison are constantly looking for opportunities. All internal reports, he said, indicate a risk linked to the ongoing attacks.
Haider al-Saadi, who worked for years as a researcher on Iraqi prisons, said: “Based on my experience, inmates like those in Cropper Prison have suspicious connections. Previous smuggling operations confirm that escape coordination took place both inside and outside the prison.”
Al-Saadi added: “There are breaches involving some corrupt correctional guards—these are individuals, not a widespread phenomenon. I believe there is a need to intensify daily inspections to prevent the smuggling of mobile phones or internet access, to avoid any potential breach.”
At the same time, al-Saadi pointed to the existence of a “security environment around prisons that makes it nearly impossible to smuggle inmates out, as they are surrounded by both security and intelligence layers.”
Earlier this year, Iraq received about 5,500 ISIS members who had been held in prisons run by the Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria. The transfer was carried out in coordination with the U.S.-led international coalition fighting the extremist group.
Some of those transferred to Iraq hold “senior” positions within ISIS, according to security expert Fadel Abu Raghif.
Abu Raghif told Alhurra that ISIS members may believe they could replicate the 2013 Abu Ghraib prison break, but “that will not happen under the current security measures,” he said.
In contrast, a security source at the National Operations Center, responsible for one of the gates leading to the prison near Baghdad International Airport, told Alhurra: “Unfortunately, the procedures do not match the scale of the threat. Rocket attacks also endanger the prison and its protection.”
So far, authorities have taken steps to reinforce security, including deploying additional forces, tightening guard measures, reviewing emergency plans, and studying the relocation of some high-risk detainees to sites farther from conflict zones.
Iraqi Justice Minister Khaled Shwani has attempted to reassure the public about these measures, appearing several times from inside the prison. However, that may not be sufficient in the face of drones and rockets, one of which could strike the gate of Cropper Prison, where the most hardened ISIS militants are held.
Amid this equation, the Iraqi government faces a dual challenge: containing the military escalation around the airport and ensuring it does not evolve into a direct threat to a facility holding the country’s most dangerous detainees.
The article is a translation of the original Arabic.
Mustafa Saadoon
Mustafa Saadoon is an Iraqi journalist who has worked for several international and Arab media organizations. He covers politics and human rights.
