Interpol Issues Security Alert on Prison Breaks

PARIS—The international police agency Interpol Saturday issued a global security alert following a series of prison escapes in which it suspects al Qaeda to be involved.
Interpol said there has been a series of prison escapes across nine Interpol member countries in the past month alone, including in Iraq, Libya and Pakistan. The police agency called on its member states to help them determine whether these breakouts were coordinated or linked.
“With suspected al Qaeda involvement in several of the breakouts which led to the escape of hundreds of terrorists and other criminals, the Interpol alert requests the organization’s 190 member countries’ assistance in order to determine whether any of these recent events are coordinated or linked,” Interpol said in a statement posted on its website Saturday.
The warning comes a day after the U.S. issued a world-wide terrorism alert for the entire month of August due to intelligence indicating al Qaeda and its affiliates are plotting attacks against U.S. interests globally, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, U.S. officials said.
Senior U.S. officials said they were particularly focused on Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, saying the affiliate was plotting attacks that Washington feared could be executed in the Middle East, Africa or beyond.
The French Foreign Ministry said Saturday that it would close its embassy in Yemen on Sunday and Monday due to security concerns. The decision comes after the U.S. said it would close most of its embassies in the Middle East on Sunday because of the terror threat. The U.K. and Germany also decided to close their embassies in Yemen temporarily.
Interpol asked its member countries to closely follow and swiftly process any information linked to the recent jail breakouts and alert Interpol if any escaped terrorists are found or intelligence is developed which could help prevent another terrorist attack.
Interpol already issued a global security alert on July 24 following a mass breakout from two Iraqi prisons involving hundreds of dangerous prisoners, many of them members of al Qaeda.
Interpol cited the U.S. State Department’s travel alert in its statement and advised “increased vigilance.”
—Inti Landauro contributed to this article.
Write to Ruth Bender at Ruth.Bender@dowjones.com

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