Baghdad ? More than 100 prison officials and guards have been detained after 16 prisoners, including five al-Qaida-linked inmates awaiting execution, made a stunning jailbreak in Saddam Hussein’s hometown, a police commander said Friday.

The escape from the makeshift prison in Tikrit was the latest in a string of embarrassing security lapses in Iraq, raising questions about the country’s ability to ensure its own security ahead of a planned U.S. withdrawal at the end of 2011.

The entire staff of the jail, including the provincial prison director, have been detained for questioning as part of the investigation into the escape, said police Lt. Col. Ahmed al-Fahal, the director of the anti-riot department for Salahuddin province.

Al-Fahal said that six of the escaped convicts, including three of the al-Qaida linked inmates, had been arrested by late Friday. Security forces continued the manhunt for the remaining fugitives, with the help of U.S. aerial surveillance.

Iraq’s government, police and military have been under intense scrutiny since the pull back of American troops from Iraq’s cities nearly three months ago as part of a security pact that outlines the U.S. withdrawal.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has built his January re-election campaign on improved security, has been eager to show Iraq can plug any gaps since the U.S. pullback.

But a series of high-profile attacks, including suicide truck bombings last month that targeted the foreign and finance ministries in Baghdad, raised questions about the readiness of Iraq’s forces.

The prison escape Wednesday came just before midnight at a jail located on the grounds of one of Saddam’s former palaces in Tikrit, some 80 miles north of Baghdad.

Authorities said the prisoners pried open a bathroom window with a pipe wrench to escape, and al-Fahal blamed the jailbreak on the bathroom window’s shoddy construction.

Al-Fahal said that no one at the prison appeared to have actively aided in the escape, but stressed that “certainly there was great negligence by the guards.”