US to free first Iraqi prisoners

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/6975241.stm

Version 0 of 1.

A spokesman for Iraq's vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, has told the BBC a first batch of Iraqi prisoners held by the US military is set to be released.

It is part of a programme coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan which begins later this month.

The majority of detainees are Sunni Arabs and their release is a key demand of the main Sunni political parties.

Until Ramadan starts, 50 prisoners will be released per week, but then it will increase to 50 every day in Baghdad.

More will be set free in the provinces.

Resentment

At present the United States military holds almost 25,000 Iraqis, including 800 juveniles aged between 12 and 17.

The numbers have increased rapidly since a so-called surge of American troops across Baghdad and central Iraq started earlier this year.

An American military spokesman admitted that 85% of the detainees are Sunni Arabs. He says it was because the surge was focussed on Sunni-dominated regions of the country.

Those detained represent only a fraction of the people originally rounded up in raids by US troops and then held for anything from a week to a month before being deemed of no value and therefore released.

It is a cause of much resentment amongst the minority Sunni community.

Sunni political leaders who walked out of the national unity government a month ago have made the release of all detainees one of their main demands.