U.S. Troops Fire on Prison Riot; 4 Inmates Slain

BAGHDAD — U.S. guards killed four prisoners Monday after opening fire during a riot at the main facility for security detainees in Iraq, the U.S. military said.

Six inmates were injured, either by U.S. troops or other detainees, it said in a statement.

The riot broke out shortly after noon at Camp Bucca near Umm al Qasr in southern Iraq after a routine search for contraband in one of the camp’s 10 compounds, the statement said.

There were no serious injuries among Americans, said Army Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for U.S. military detention operations in Iraq.

“The riot quickly spread to three additional compounds, with detainees throwing rocks and fashioning weapons from materials inside their living areas,” the statement said. “Guards attempted to calm the increasingly volatile situation using verbal warnings and, when that failed, by use of nonlethal force.

“After about 45 minutes of escalating danger, lethal force was used to quell the violence.”

Troops killed the four with rifles after failing to subdue the rioters with plastic pellets fired from shotguns, Johnson said.

“We’re not sure exactly what sparked it,” he said.

In November 2003, U.S. soldiers fired on rioting detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, killing three.