Riot at Camp Bucca

U.S. guards opened fire Monday on prisoners during a riot at a detention facility in southern Iraq, killing four of them, the U.S. command said. Six other prisoners at the Camp Bucca facility near Umm Qasar were injured.

Almost 3,000 prisoners started rioting after guards began a search for contraband, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said. After "45 minutes of escalating danger," guards opened fire, Johnson said. No soldiers were hurt in the uprising.
  Detroit Free Press article

Troops shot the four dead with rifles after failing to quell the riot with plastic pellets fired from shotguns.

"We're not sure exactly what sparked it. There's no obvious connection with the election. We're not sure if that had anything to do with it," Johnson said.

Prisoners began throwing rocks and fashioning weapons after a routine search of one of 10 compounds at the camp near the port of Umm Qasr, the military said in a written statement.

Violence spread to three other compounds, which together house more than 2,900 of Camp Bucca's 5,300 inmates.

Some detainees have been held for more than a year, Johnson said, noting that the camp was now the main internment facility for suspected guerrillas in Iraq.
  Reuters article