Al-Qaeda militants launched a pre-dawn breakout from a police station in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, triggering a shootout that left 13 people dead.

“During an exchange of fire between prisoners trying to escape and police officers in the station, six policemen and seven prisoners were killed,” provincial police chief Tareq al-Dulaimi said.

Three prisoners managed to flee but one was re-arrested, Dulaimi said, adding that another four policemen were wounded in the shootout that occurred at 0730 IST at Forsan police station in the centre of Ramadi.

Ramadi police have imposed a curfew in the city following the incident, an interior ministry source said, adding that three fugitive Al-Qaeda militants were “emirs” or local chiefs.The ministry source said that a prisoner wanting to go to the toilet was escorted from his cell by a policeman, kicking off what appeared to be a well-planned operation.

“The policeman was overpowered by the inmate who seized his weapon and shot him,”.”He then opened up the other cells and and he and his fellow prisoners grabbed weapons from the police station’s armoury, opening fire on the policemen.”

The predominantly Sunni Arab city of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, was a key Al-Qaeda stronghold in the aftermath of the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime by US-led forces in 2003.