At least 30 prisoners and 6 guards were killed in clashes during a jail break that occurred at a prison in the town of Khalis, located about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, according to the country's Interior Ministry.
"Clashes erupted inside. We lost a first lieutenant and five policemen; forty prisoners fled. Nine of them were held on terror charges and the rest for common crimes," Brigadier General Saad Maan was quoted by the news agency AFP as saying.
Several prison breaks have hit Iraq in the past two years, including one that occurred at the beginning of last year's offensive by the Islamic State.
