BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Wednesday that the too rapid release of detainees held by US forces was one reason for the recent return of violence to the country."The hasty release of detainees from American prisons has been one of the reasons for a renewal of terrorist activities," Maliki said in a statement.
Since the start of the year, the American military has released thousands of prisoners in the framework of a security agreement reached last November between Washington and Baghdad.
| The pact says we can't detain them any more. It doesn't prevent the Iraqi government from pinching them. |
Last week, the US military in Iraq announced it had freed more than 3,200 detainees since the beginning of the year and that it was now holding fewer than 12,000.
The country has seen a clear increase in violence since February, notably in the provinces of Baghdad, Nineveh and Diyala. April was the bloodiest month since September 2008, both for the American military, which lost 18 troops, and for the Iraqis, of whom 355 were killed.
Maliki said, however, that while the rise in violence produced tragedies and suffering, it did not constitute a threat to the process of stabilising Iraq. "Those behind these attacks are trying to prove their existence, like the Baathists and 'takfiris'," he added, referring to supporters of Saddam Hussein's former ruling Baath party and Sunni extremists.
"But they are no longer capable of occupying a centimetre of our towns as used to be the case in the past."
In the meantime, commissions will decide whether remaining US-held detainees should be released or handed over to the Iraqis.