How US prison Camp Bucca became 'a breeding ground' for Islamic State jihadists

The birth of the brutal Islamic State has been traced back to Camp Bucca, the American detention center at the Iraq-Kuwait border.

The prison camp is believed to have served as the breeding ground for the Islamic State jihadists, including at least nine members of the caliphate's top command.

Camp Bucca, which held some of the Iraq War's most radical jihadists along the Kuwait border, recently released hundreds of prisoners who were lodged in the prison camp for years, The Independent reports.

Police chief Saad Abbas Mahmoud told The Washington Post that 90 percent of the freed prisoners would soon resume fighting.

It is believed that many of the IS leaders, including Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, were imprisoned in Camp Bucca, where the mutual feeling of hatred and revenge against the West bonded the jihadists.

According to former prison commanders, analysts and soldiers, Camp Bucca provided a unique setting for both prisoner radicalization and inmate collaboration - and was formative in the development of today's most potent jihadist force, the report said.