| Iraqi authorities have released 160 of about 1,500 jailed Iranian pilgrims to Shiite holy sites and will free the rest gradually, Iran's Foreign Ministry said Monday. The number represented a slight increase from the 142 that a senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official, Masoud Khaleghi, reported freed earlier this month. Iran said last week that 1,500 of its nationals had been jailed in neighboring Iraq after ignoring an official ban on pilgrimages to Shiite holy sites there, particularly in Najaf and Karbala, which host the holiest Shiite sites. "(The) order for releasing some 1,500 jailed Iranian nationals has been issued by the Iraqi authorities and they are being released more and more," Iran's Foreign Ministry said. |