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Report: U.S. Frees 2 Iranian Detainees
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Two Iranians detained by American troops in Iraq and suspected of transferring weapons technology to insurgents in that country were released early Friday, Iran's state-run television and news agency reported.The U.S. military had no immediate comment. There was also no immediate response from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Iranian state TV referred to the Iranians as diplomats and said the release happened Friday. The two were handed over to Iranian officials in the presence of Iraq's National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said Iran's state-run news agency, IRNA. Hassan Kazemi Qomi, Iran's ambassador to Baghdad, said the arrest of the two diplomats was against internationally accepted regulations, IRNA said. "Fortunately with the effort exerted by the Iraqi officials, the U.S. forces, who first denied their arrest, were obliged to admit it and under pressure from the Iraqi government to release them," IRNA quoted Qomi as saying. The White House said earlier this week that U.S. troops had detained at least two Iranians and released two others who had diplomatic immunity. A White House spokesman said the Iranians were taken into custody during a raid on suspected insurgents. On Thursday, a Pentagon official said U.S. forces had found "indications and evidence that all of the people rounded up, including the two Iranians, are involved in the transfer of IED technologies from Iran to Iraq." IED stands for improvised explosive devices, or small bombs that are commonly used in attacks in Iraq. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not yet been made public, said that U.S. forces were working out ways to turn over the Iranians to the Iraqis. A spokesman for Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Monday that the two detained Iranians were in the country at his invitation. Maryam Rajavi, the head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an Iranian opposition group, said the two Iranians were senior members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards and had coordinated attacks against coalition troops and Iraqi civilians. It was not possible to independently verify Rajavi's allegations, made Thursday in a phone interview from Paris. Iran, a Shiite Muslim country, has considerable influence among Iraq's Shiite majority. The United States has accused Iran of supplying money, weapons components and training to Shiite militia in Iraq, as well as technology for roadside bombs. Iran has denied the allegations, saying it only has political and religious links with Iraqi Shiites. Talabani visited Iran last month to seek government officials' help in quelling the sectarian violence in Iraq. The Iraqi president, who is a member of Iraq's Kurdish minority, had close ties with Iranian officials before Saddam Hussein was overthrown by the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Posted by: .com 2006-12-29 |
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