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.