'Only 29 foreign fighters held in Iraq'

Iraq’s government said today it was holding only 29 foreign fighters at its maximum security prison in Baghdad, throwing into doubt repeated claims foreign insurgents were largely responsible for the violence wracking the country.

Iraq’s government said today it was holding only 29 foreign fighters at its maximum security prison in Baghdad, throwing into doubt repeated claims by US and Iraqi authorities that foreign insurgents were largely responsible for the violence wracking the country.

The small number of fighters was a fraction of the thousands of detainees currently behind bars.

The 29 men were being held at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison.

Iraq’s Human Rights Minister Bakhityar Amin read off 20 of the names at a news conference.

Those on the list included four Saudis, four Syrians, four Jordanians, two Yemenites, an Egyptian, a Turk, a Lebanese, a Palestinian, a Moroccan and an Iranian.

Some 60 other foreign fighters were being held elsewhere in Abu Ghraib and at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, for “anti-Iraq activities that threaten the security of coalition forces”, said Lieut Colonel Barry Johnson, the US military’s spokesman for detention operations.

More than 22,000 Iraqis have been through the prison system since the end of the war last May.

There are currently 5,500 Iraqi prisoners listed as “suspected combatants”.

While both Iraqi and US officials have for months steadfastly blamed foreign insurgents for creating instability in the country and sabotaging reconstruction efforts, US intelligence officials privately acknowledge that the foreigners are not the crux of the problem.

They believe the overwhelming number of insurgents are Iraqi, mostly Sunni Muslims who are outnumbered by their Shiite compatriots and have the most to lose in post-war Iraq.