U.S. releases Iraqi women prisoners

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The U.S. military released five Iraqi women detainees today, a move demanded by the kidnappers of an American reporter to spare her life, but an official said the release was coincidental.

The women were freed from U.S. 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 Jan. 7 in Baghdad have threatened to kill the freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor unless all Iraqi women prisoners were freed.

David Cook, the Washington bureau chief for The Christian Science Monitor, said: "We've seen the reports. We're waiting to see if there are hopeful developments in Iraq."

He declined further comment.

The U.S. military announced earlier that the women would be freed as part of a group of about 420 Iraqis to be released today and Friday from military custody after reviews of their cases determined there was no reason to detain them further.

The military had confirmed it was holding nine Iraqi women. The status of the remaining four was not immediately clear. Another two women were detained Wednesday in the northern city of Mosul for alleged insurgent activities, the military said today.

Meanwhile, two U.S. soldiers were killed in separate attacks Wednesday. One was killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb blast south of Baghdad, while a soldier assigned to U.S. Marines operating in western Iraq died from wounds sustained by a rocket attack on his vehicle near Ramadi.

At least 2,238 members of the U.S. military have died since the war began, according to an Associated Press count.

Detainees are regularly freed in Iraq following reviews of their cases, a process that can take months, and U.S. officials have said the pending releases were part of the routine procedure and not linked to Carroll's case.

A tearful Siham Faraj confirmed that her 28-year-old daughter, Hala Khalid, returned home today after being arrested with her brother on Sept. 24 during a dawn raid by U.S. forces on their Baghdad home.

"My daughter is home now and in good health after spending four months in detention. I'm so happy," Faraj told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, the sounds of laughter and celebrations being heard in the background.

Faraj also called on the kidnappers of Carroll to release her, saying she is just as innocent as her own daughter.

The Shiite bloc set to dominate the next parliament, the United Iraqi Alliance, will decide on its nominee for prime minister in the next few days, said a top Shiite official, Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi.

Abdul-Mahdi is among four prominent Shiites mentioned as possible premiers. The others are Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari; nuclear physicist Hussain al-Shahrastani; and Nadim al-Jabiri of the Fadhila party, a religious group whose spiritual leader is radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's late father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr.

Trade and Minerals Minister Osama Abdul-Aziz al-Najafi escaped a seventh assassination attempt today after a roadside bomb targeted his convoy north of Baghdad, but three bodyguards were killed and a fourth was seriously wounded, ministry spokeswoman Hanan Jassim said.

In Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, gunmen driving a red Opel assassinated a senior official of Iraq's anti-corruption commission and the deputy director of a state-run food stuff company in separate attacks today, police Capt. Farhad Talabani said.

Anti-corruption official Othman Majeed Rasheed, a 51-year-old Turkoman, was walking from his home to his nearby office when he was killed by a hail of gunfire, Talabani said.

Shortly after, the same group of gunmen shot dead Jomaa Rasheed, a Kurd who is the deputy director of the state-run company for food stuffs, in the same area, Talabani said. The two victims were unrelated.

Police believe the men were killed by the same masked gunmen who launched similar attacks on Jan. 17, targeting another Kirkuk office of the anti-corruption watchdog, known as the Integrity Commission, and offices for the Kurdistan Peoples Party, killing two people and wounding three.

Shiite cleric Fayez Mahmoud al-Moussaoui was killed after being caught in the crossfire between Iraqi soldiers and gunmen clashing in western Baghdad's Baiyaa district, police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said.

Zaid Attah, a retired Trade Ministry employee, was shot dead by gunmen who broke into his home in western Baghdad's Amariyah neighborhood, police Capt. Qassim Hussein said.

Gunmen disguised as Iraqi soldiers kidnapped Hadi al-Dahlaki, owner of a food company, and killed his son Wednesday during a raid on their factory in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, Diyala police said. The al-Dahlaki family is one of Baqouba's wealthiest, and several of the hostage's sons have been kidnapped and released previously after the paying of ransoms.

Police found four bound and blindfolded bodies riddled with bullet holes today in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, said Capt. Rasheed al-Samaraei.

North of Baghdad, three Iraqi soldiers were killed and four wounded by a roadside bomb Wednesday afternoon, police Lt. Amir al-Ahbabi said.

The attack happened in the Ishaki area on the Baghdad-Mosul highway, about 55 miles north of the Iraqi capital.