# List of jailbreaks by al-Qaeda affiliates

In 2013 a succession of successful jailbreaks by al-Qaeda led INTERPOL to release a global alert calling for investigation of their role in jailbreaks in nine member countries. The following is a list of incidents in which sources have suggested the involvement of an al-Qaeda affiliate organization in attempted jailbreaks, though the involvement of the organization and its affiliation with al-Qaeda may remain uncertain. This list includes instances where officials have collaborated in the release of prisoners in exchange for the release of hostages taken for this purpose, whether they were taken within the prison or elsewhere.
| Date | Freed | Dead | Injd | Location | Details | Affiliate |
| 1999-12-24 | 3 | 1 | 17 | | The hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814 was used to persuade Indian authorities to release three militants in Kandahar, Afghanistan, who subsequently crossed into Pakistan. These militants were Maulana Masood Azhar, who subsequently founded Jaish-e-Muhammed in 2000, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, convicted in the murder of Daniel Pearl, and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar. | Harkat-ul-Mujahideen |
| 2001-11-01 | 0 | 0 | 1 | New York, USA | The FBI found evidence of a plan for an escape from the 10-South wing of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York. Despite warnings, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim found an opportunity to attack a lone guard while uncuffed to gather files for a meeting with his lawyer. Salim first blinded the guard, Louis Pepe, with a spray of hot sauce, then stabbed him through the eye into the brain with a sharpened plastic comb. Despite massive injury, the guard resolutely maintained his hold on the cellblock keys, defeating the escape. Salim had planned to make an escape to the United Nations and to take hostages to exchange for other prisoners. | al Qaeda (founding member) |
| 2003-04-11 | 10 | 0 | 0 | Aden, Yemen | Ten prisoners suspected of membership in either al-Qaeda or Al-Jihad, including Jamal al-Badawi and Fahd Al Qash, the two main suspects in the attack on the USS Cole (DDG-67), escaped from Al Mansourah prison in Aden, Yemen. At the time of the escape the small maximum-security prison held 85 inmates, and details of the escape were uncertain, but included cutting window bars. | |
| 2003-10 | 41 | | | Kandahar, Afghanistan | 41 prisoners including the brother of the Afghani defense minister escaped through a tunnel from Sarposa Prison in southern Afghanistan. Guards were bribed to assist in the escape. | |
| 2006-02-04 | 23 | 0 | 0 | Sana'a, Yemen | A tunnel over 300 meters in length was dug from the women's prayer yard in Al-Awkaf Mosque to the cells of Political Security Central Prison in Sana'a. An official list of 22 suspected al-Qaeda members were reported to have escaped, most notably Jamal Badawi and Fawaz Al-Rabyee, and a Yemen newspaper reported that Mohammed Hamdi Al-Ahdal had also escaped on the eve of his trial and that of 14 other suspects for terrorist activities including an attack on the USS Cole (DDG-67). | |
| 2008-06-14 | 1,200 | 15 | | Kandahar, Afghanistan | Thirty Taliban fighters and two suicide bombers attacked Sarposa Prison, the largest in southern Afghanistan, blowing up the prison's mud walls with an attack on the main gates, after which fighters armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades entered the prison, opening the cells. | Taliban |
| 2010-07-20 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Baghdad, Iraq | Four days after Americans handed over control of Camp Cropper to the Iraqi government, the warden of the prison and four senior al-Qaeda leaders drove out of the base. |
| 2011-04-25 | 488 | | | Kandahar, Afghanistan | Over several months the Taliban dug a half-mile long, three-foot wide tunnel with electricity and air pipes from a nearby house to a cell in Sarposa Prison. Guards left the inner cell doors open and did not check on the prisoners during the night, permitting nearly 500 to pass through the tunnel. | Taliban |
| 2011-06-22 | 62 | 1 | 2 | Mukalla, Yemen | Militants opened fire on the gates of al-Munawara prison in southern Yemen, killing one guard and wounding two. Meanwhile, 62 inmates, many suspected to be al-Qaeda members, used the distraction to escape through a tunnel. Nasser Bakazzuz, speaking for NGOs in Hadramawt, accused the authorities of lying about the attack and simply releasing the prisoners. | Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula suspected |
| 2011-09-01 | 35 | | | Mosul, Iraq | 35 prisoners crawled to freedom through a sewage pipe from a temporary prison in Iraq. Of these, 21 were rapidly recaptured with the help of U.S. aerial reconnaissance. The prisoners were local Iraqi militants rather than foreign fighters, leaving doubt whether they were associated with al-Qaeda. | undetermined |
| 2011-12-12 | 14 | 0 | 0 | Aden, Yemen | 14 detainees awaiting trial, including 12 alleged al-Qaida militants, escaped through a tunnel somewhere between six meters and 130 feet in length from the west end of Aden's central jail. | |
| 2012-01-15 | 0 | 13 | 10 | Ramadi, Iraq | A series of coordinated attacks took place in Ramadi as at least six suicide bombers stormed a counter terrorism unit building in an attempt to free several senior al-Qaeda prisoners. Several car bombings and roadside bombs exploded before and during the suicide attack, which is the latest in a series of incidents during January. | |
| 2012-02-16 | 119 | | | Kogi State, Nigeria | On 16 February attackers stormed a prison in the central Kogi State, killing the warden and releasing 119 inmates, most of them members of Boko Haram. | Boko Haram |
| 2012-02-24 | 0 | 12 | 1 | Gombe, Nigeria | Unidentified gunmen set off bombs in an attempt to help inmates break out of a prison in the northeast city of Gombe. After a lengthy firefight the attackers bombed a local police station, killing two officers. At least 10 others were killed in the violence, most of them civilians. Because this followed the week after another Boko Haram associated jailbreak, the group was suspected of involvement even though none of the prisoners were known to be members. | Boko Haram Suspected |
| 2012-08-05 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Abu Ghraib, Iraq | Guards discovered a 20-meter tunnel, dug with a frying pan and a broken ceiling fan by prisoners described as 'al-Qaeda terrorists', when a guard heard the banging and scraping of the tools from under the concrete in the middle of the night. The tunnel included an air tube made out of drinks cans. The guards flushed the diggers out of the tunnel by filling it with water. | Islamic State of Iraq |
| 2012-09-28 | 50+ | 16 | | Tikrit, Iraq | After exploding a car bomb at the main gate of the prison, gunmen dressed in police uniforms driving police vehicles entered an Iraqi jail and attacked the guards, killing 12. They destroyed all of the prison documents including photos and identification documents, making it difficult for authorities to determine who had been released. Of the 300 prisoners present before the raid, at least 50 were at large the next day. The death toll increased to 16 in ensuing combat, and credit was taken by the Islamic State of Iraq which is the Iraqi wing of al-Qaeda. | Islamic State of Iraq |
| 2013-02-22 | 127 | 25 | -- | Ganye, Nigeria | Unidentified gunmen attacked at least 13 locations in Ganye, a city in Nigeria's northeastern Adamawa State, including the local police HQ, a bank and several local bars. At least 25 people were killed in the two-hour assault, including the deputy chief of the local prison, where 127 inmates were freed. | Boko Haram Suspected |
| 2013-06-01 | 22 | 2 | 3 | Niamey, Niger | Inmates at a prison in Niger's capital Niamey attempted to escape, killing two guards and injuring three others. Authorities were investigating how the group managed to get heavy weapons inside the building, which houses members of Boko Haram and other Islamist groups. On June 3, a government spokesman announced that a total of 22 people had escaped from the facility, including a member of AQIM. | Boko Haram/MOJWA Suspected |
| 2013-07-21 | 500 | 50+ | | Abu Ghraib and Taji, Iraq | Raids on the Abu Ghraib and Taji prisons released over 500 inmates. The Interior Ministry said that some of the guards had helped in the prison break from Abu Ghraib. More than 50 people, including 26 guards and Iraqi soldiers, were killed in the attack. The ministry's statement read: "There has been a conspiracy between some of the guards of both prisons and the terrorist gangs that attacked the prisons. That was one of the main reasons for the escalation of events which led to these consequences." The Ministry of Justice, meanwhile, said that 260 prisoners escaped from Abu Ghraib; of the 500 original escapees about 150 had been recaptured. | Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant |
| 2013-07-27 | 1,117 | ? | | Benghazi, Libya | 1,117 prisoners escaped from Kuafiya prison after a riot and an external attack on the prison. Interpol requested investigation of whether the event was linked to al-Qaeda jailbreaks occurring that week. |
| 2013-07-29 | 250 | 12 | 8 | Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan | Fighters armed with mortars and grenades detonated small bombs to destroy the prison's perimeter fence and then took part in a firefight with security forces while chanting Allahu Akbar and "Long Live the Taliban." As a result of the raid, about 250 prisoners were freed and the dead included six police. A senior government official, Mushtaq Jadoon, said that "Police and other law enforcing agencies are busy in clearing the jail" and that a curfew was imposed on the city with residents asked to stay at home. The Pakistani military also deployed its forces to respond to the raid. | Pakistani Taliban |
| 2019-10-13 | 859 | 0 | unknown | Ayn Issa, Syria | 859 ISIS members escaped after attacking guards and overrunning the main gate. | Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant |
| 2019-10-17 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Qamishli, Syria | two Belgian ISIS fighters escaped from an SDF prison after a Turkish artillery shell hit the prison yard. | Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant |
| 2020-08-02-3 | 768 | 29 | 50 | Jalalabad, Afghanistan | Jalalabad prison attack- Isis attack a prison in Jalalabad with a suicide bombing then attacked with fighter the battle for the prison lasted 20 hours in which 768 prisoners escaped. | Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province |
| 2020-10-20 | 1,335 | 2 | 0 | Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo | 1,335 prisoners escaped after ISCAP attacked Kangbayi central prison and a military camp defending it. Only 100 prisoners remained after the attack and 20 were recaptured. | Islamic State's Central Africa Province |
| 2021-3-05 | 400 | 7 | unknown | Bosaso, Somalia | 400 prisoners were freed when al Shabaab stormed a jail in Bosaso, seven soldiers were killed in the attack. | Al-Shabaab |
| 2024-7-13 | 500 | 8 | 18 | Mogadishu, Somalia | 2024 Mogadishu prison attack- Al-Shabaab claimed they freed 500 prisoners during the attempted jailbreak. | Al-Shabaab |