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Terrorists Demand Release of Iraqi Women -
Bush Releases Them
Bloomberg
U.S. to Release 420 Iraq Detainees, Including 5 Women January 26,
2006
Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- About 420 Iraqi detainees will be released by the
U.S. Army today and tomorrow, including five women, the American military
said.
The Combined Review and Release Board, a panel that includes officials from
U.S. and Iraqi armed forces and Iraq's human rights, justice and interior
ministries "reviewed the detainee's cases and decided they were no longer a
threat to the security of Iraq," Lieutenant Colonel Guy Rudisill, spokesman for
the U.S. detention system in Iraq, said.
Rudisill denied the decision to release the Iraqis is linked to the Jan. 7
kidnapping of American journalist Jill Carroll, whose captors said they'd kill
her on Jan. 20 unless the U.S. freed all females prisoners in Iraq. The
deadline passed with no word on Carroll's fate.
"This has nothing to do with that," Rudisill said. "It's a normal process
that all detainees, including women, go through."
On their release, the detainees will be given 25 U.S. dollars, Rudisill said
in a telephone interview from Baghdad. They'll then be transported back to the
place where they were captured, or their home, he added.
U.S.-led and Iraqi troops are struggling to contain an insurgency that is
trying to destabilize the Iraqi government and force the foreign military out
by staging attacks on soldiers, Iraqi government workers and civilians.
Detainees
A total of 14,100 detainees, including four women, will be in U.S. custody
once the 420 people are set free, according to Rudisill.
Carroll was seized near the western Baghdad office of Adnan al-Duleimi, a
Sunni politician, whom she planned to interview while on assignment for the
Boston-based Christian Science Monitor. Her interpreter, Allan Enwiyah, was
shot dead.
The 28-year-old reporter was last seen in a Jan. 17 silent videotape aired
by the Doha, Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television. A group calling itself the
Brigade of Revenge said in an accompanying message that it would kill her in 72
hours unless its demands were met.
Muslim leaders, including al-Duleimi, have joined Carroll's family in
calling for her safe return. Deadlines have been altered in previous Iraqi
abductions with kidnappers sometimes extending them.
Insurgents
Insurgents carried out 34,131 attacks against U.S.-led forces, local
security personnel and civilians in Iraq last year, up 29 percent from 2004,
USA Today reported on Jan. 23, citing U.S. military data.
A total of 264 foreigners have been kidnapped in the country since May 2003,
some by criminals seeking ransom, others by insurgents demanding the departure
of coalition troops, according to the Brookings Institution. In December, up to
30 Iraqis a day were abducted nationwide, the Washington-based policy research
organization said on its Web site.
To contact the reporter for this story:
Caroline Alexander in London at calexander1@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: January 26, 2006 07:30 EST
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