US military release five Iraqi women

The US military handed over five Iraqi women to their families today, a demand sought by militants holding a kidnapped American journalist.

US officials said the release was routine and not related to the kidnapping.

The women were freed from US. custody and delivered to the home of a senior Sunni Arab politician in Baghdad, where they were returned to their families, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene. They were later driven away in taxis.

Armed men who abducted Jill Carroll on January 7 in Baghdad have threatened to kill the freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor unless all Iraqi women prisoners were freed.

The US military announced earlier that the women would be freed as part of a group of about 420 Iraqis to be released today and tomorrow from military custody after reviews of their cases determined there was no reason to keep holding them.

The military had confirmed it was holding nine Iraqi women. The fate of the remaining four was not immediately clear. Another two women were detained in northern Iraq yesterday, the military said later.