Iraq asks US to release six detainees

Iraq has asked US authorities to release six of the eight Iraqi women in military custody, but not as part of a bid to free a kidnapped American female journalist, a government official said today.

Militants holding 28-year-old Jill Carroll have demanded US authorities release all Iraqi female detainees or else they would kill the freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor newspaper, who was kidnapped on January 7 in Baghdad.

The US military said eight Iraqi women were in military detention. An Iraqi government commission reviewing detainee cases recommended to US authorities on Monday that six of them be released.

An official from the Human Rights Ministry, which sits on the commission along with representatives of the Defence and Justice ministries, said the call was not made in response to demands from Carroll’s kidnappers, who gave authorities until tomorrow night to free the women.

“There was no outside pressure on the commission” to release the women, said the official.

“This recommendation came after we studied the women’s files provided by American military and we recommended their release,” the official added.

US officials refused to comment on whether any of the women were set to be released.

Carroll was seen for the first time since her abduction on Tuesday in footage broadcast by Al-Jazeera television. The report said the 20-second video included a threat to kill Carroll in 72 hours unless US authorities released all female detainees in Iraq.

A still photograph of Carroll from the videotape on Al-Jazeera’s website carried a logo reading 'The Revenge Brigade', a group that was not known from previous claims of responsibility of violence in Iraq.

Insurgents in Iraq, mainly Sunni Arab militants, have kidnapped more than 240 foreigners and killed at least 39 of them. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, more Iraqis have been abducted either by insurgents or gangs seeking ransoms.

The fate of two engineers, believed to be Kenyans and working for Iraqi mobile-phone company Iraqna, was still unknown after they went missing and were feared kidnapped in an ambush of their security convoy in Baghdad yesterday.

An official from a prominent Sunni political organisation believed to have ties to some insurgent groups called for Carroll’s release, but claimed his group had not heard of the militants holding her and was not part of efforts to free her.

“We condemn the abduction of journalists, who are means to conveying the truth to people,” said Muthana Harith al-Dhari, spokesman for the Association of Muslim Scholars.

Ordinary Iraqis even criticised the kidnappers as tight-lipped Iraqi and US authorities continued efforts to try release her.

“If the purpose behind the abduction was to free Iraqi female prisoners, it was a legitimate right for Iraqis,” an Iraqi policemen said while conducting traffic in Baghdad. “But if it was a terrorist act, we denounce it.”

French journalist and former hostage Florence Aubenas, who was released in June after being held hostage for 157 days, called on the American’s hostage-takers to release her.

“She came to this country to do her job as a journalist and not anything else,” Aubenas told Al-Jazeera TV.

US President George Bush ignored shouted questions yesterday about what his administration was doing to find Carroll. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said her safe return was a priority for the administration” but refused to say more “because of the sensitivity of the situation”.

David Cook, the Washington bureau chief for The Christian Science Monitor, told a news conference that Carroll’s work had demonstrated she is respectful of Arab culture and people, and the newspaper has shown it treats different cultures and viewpoints fairly.

US and Iraqi Muslim groups also appealed for Carroll’s release yesterday. The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations was planning press conferences in Amman, Jordan, and Baghdad to try to convince Carroll’s captors to release her.