Iraq prison hell for captured jihadis

HUNDREDS of suspected ISIS jihadis are being held in a cramped and stifling prison near Mosul after they were captured by Iraqi forces liberating the city.

Reporters from the Associated Press saw more than 100 prisoners packed into one dark room, lined up shoulder to shoulder on the floor.

The Sun reports that there is no electricity or ventilation, despite daytime temperatures well over 45C.

The Iraqi officer in charge of the grim jail said it currently held 370 prisoners.

He says authorities were overwhelmed with detainees as Iraqi forces cleared the last neighbourhoods of the city this month at the end of a gruelling nine-month campaign.

“Prisoners are infected with diseases, lots of health and skin problems, because they’re not exposed to the sun.”

More than 1150 detainees have passed through the prison over the past three months, with 540 sent to Baghdad for further investigation, the officer said.

Another 2800 prisoners are being held in the Qayara air base south of Mosul, and hundreds more in a few smaller facilities.

ISIS declared a caliphate in Mosul, Iraq’s second city, after the death cult fanatics swept across northern and central Iraq in the summer of 2014.

As US-backed Iraqi forces battled block by block to retake the city, the jihadis rounded up civilians and used them as human shields.

Many fighters also fled the city by hiding among fleeing residents, complicating efforts by Iraqi forces to separate them from civilians.

Prisoners who were inter- viewed by the AP insisted they were innocent.

One, who said he was a civil servant, claimed: “You won’t find 10 real ISIS members among these guys.

Another inmate said: “We really want to die. None of us have received any visitors, relatives, family members.

“They don’t even know where we are.”

Harrowing images from liberated Mosul this week showed starving toddlers pulled from the ruins after their fanatic parents blew themselves up.

Chilling documents found in the rubble reveal how ISIS bosses controlled the sale of women as sex slaves.