us form of rights

More than 500 Iraqi detainees freed
Monday 16 January 2006
aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/027AF6A1-1227-4245-9364-B42AAF7A8574.htm

The US military has freed more than 500 Iraqi detainees from three prisons in Iraq, including two journalists.

The prisoners had been held for several months without charge at Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, at Camp Bucca, a US jail in southern Iraq, and at Camp Suse near the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.

"The US military freed all the prisoners this morning," said an Iraqi government spokesman on Sunday, adding that they had been cleared of terror-related charges.

Majed Hameed, an Iraqi reporter for the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya network and the Reuters news agency, was released after four months in US custody, US Army Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt said during a visit to Al-Arabiya's headquarters in Dubai.

Ali al-Mashhadani, a photographer and cameraman for Reuters, was also freed in the mass release of 500 prisoners from Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad, Reuters reported. Al-Mashhadani had been jailed since August.

US-led forces in Iraq are still holding more than 12,000 Iraqis in prisons across the country on suspicion of taking part in the armed operations against US-led troops and US-backed Iraqi troops.