US frees ‘low-threat’ Iraqi prisoners

THE US Army freed scores of Iraqi prisoners yesterday after announcing an amnesty the previous day for low-threat detainees rounded up over the past eight months.

About 60 prisoners were driven in military trucks from the notorious Abu Ghraib jail, west of Baghdad, and left by the roadside, where they were met by jubilant friends and relatives.

A spokesman for the US-led coalition in Baghdad said the process of releasing prisoners under the amnesty had begun, but would not say specifically if those freed in a swirl of publicity came under the new programme.

The US military has about 9,500 people in detention throughout Iraq and releases some almost every day, most of them people who have been held for 72 hours or less. Troops also detain new suspects every day in raids across Iraq.

Paul Bremer, the US administrator in Iraq, announced on Wednesday that some 500 prisoners held for months on suspicion of associating with anti-American insurgents would be released in the coming weeks, with 100 to be freed yesterday.

“I can tell you that the process of releasing prisoners as announced by Ambassador Bremer ... is underway,” said Dan Senor, a spokesman for the coalition. “Ambassador Bremer said that approximately 100 prisoners would be ready to be released today and they are ready.”

Mr Senor said that for security and privacy reasons the coalition did not intend to provide precise numbers of those released under the amnesty program, which was billed as a gesture of reconciliation.

While there was confusion over exactly who had been released, there was both jubilation and anger among those set free, many of whom had been held for several months. One of those released said that now he was out he would take any opportunity to attack American troops. “I’m free, but now I will attack them,” he said.

The man, who declined to give his name, said he was detained in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, several months ago and had been poorly treated by the Americans in Abu Ghraib, the prison where Saddam Hussein once kept his worst enemies.

Others were looking forward to seeing their loved ones.

“I’m very happy to be free,” shouted Kamal Risaeya, 32, an identification tag still hanging from his leg. “I’m just looking forward to seeing my family.”

Risaeya said he was arrested by US troops in Tikrit on suspicion of being an insurgent and held for five months and two days at Abu Ghraib. He said he was well treated.