Clothes-swapping prisoners flee jail in Iraq

BAGHDAD: Ten prisoners who were being held at a British-run detention facility in Iraq escaped after they swapped clothes and changed places with a group of men posing as visitors, the British military said on Friday.   

"This is a very regrettable situation and we are taking it very seriously," Major David Gell, a spokesman for the British military, said of the escape, which happened earlier in the week near the southern city of Basra.   

He said the 10 impostors, who were part of a group of visitors at the centre, were being held at the Shaibah detention facility for questioning.   

Gell would not give further details on the case but said the escaped prisoners "posed a threat to the security of Iraq and to Multinational Forces in Iraq."   

There are about 7,000 British troops in southern Iraq.