2,500 Iraqi Prisoners being released - Italy bugging out of Iraq

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June 7, 2006 |
ABC News

1st 600 of 2,500 Prisoners Freed in Iraq

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki Releases First 600 to 2,500 Prisoners

BAGHDAD, Iraq Jun 7, 2006 (AP)— Iraq's Shiite prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki made good on a promise Wednesday and released the first 600 of 2,500 detainees he said would be released from some of Iraq's most notorious prisons.

Al-Maliki has made security and reconciliation among feuding Sunni Arab and Shiites a top priority of his new administration.

Italy announced its intention on Wednesday to pull out all its troops by the end of the year, an action that further reduces the number of international troops supporting the United States in Iraq.

"The Italian military presence in Iraq will end by the end of the year," D'Alema said.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Iraqis would be ready to take over responsibility for the southeastern area where the Italians are based.

"This withdrawal will not begin suddenly but it will be gradual," he said during a joint news conference at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry. "We have a security plan to transfer the security tasks from the Italian forces to the Iraqi forces starting end of this month."

Italy has 2,700 troops based in Nasiriyah, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, and has already said it plans to pull out 1,600 of them this month.

The announcement falls in line with a previous pullout plan by former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, but it is the first time that a timetable has been given. It also makes good on a pledge by Italy's new center-left government to withdraw the troops.

"We have a voters' mandate: the troops are coming back home," D'Alema said.

Italy follows Spain, Bulgaria and other staunch U.S. allies to either pull out or reduce troops that are part of the Multinational Forces in Iraq. There are about 150,000 foreign troops in Iraq with 130,000 belonging to the United States.

Al-Maliki has announced he wants to take over security from U.S.-led forces within 18 months, starting with four southern provinces by the end of the year. The plan would put American and international forces in a supervisory role, part of an exit strategy that will eventually allow the troops to go home.

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Although Iraq may take over security control, it remains doubtful at this point if al-Maliki's much-touted national unity government will be able to restore order to Baghdad, let alone Iraq as a whole.

One example of Baghdad lawlessness was the random kidnapping of 50 people Monday by masked gunmen wearing police during a bold daylight raid in downtown Baghdad. Police said Wednesday that 15 people had been released, some with signs of torture, but had no other details about their identities.

The Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni Arab contributor to al-Maliki's coalition government, blamed the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry for the kidnappings. The ministry, which oversees police, denied its forces were behind the abduction.

Suspicion has fallen on militias, which are believed to have infiltrated police forces and have killed hundreds in sectarian violence, personal vendettas and kidnappings for ransom.

Al-Maliki has blamed a desire by insurgents to cripple the political process for the spike in violence since he took office just over two weeks ago.

In an apparent effort to appease anger in the Sunni Arab minority over allegations of random detentions and mistreatment of prisoners, 594 detainees were released from U.S. and Iraqi run prisons around Iraq including Abu Ghraib on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Al-Maliki has stressed that the release plan excludes loyalists of ousted leader Saddam Hussein and his Sunni-dominated Baath Party as well as "terrorists whose hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqi people."

"All the prisoners in the American and the governmental prisons will be released, to give happiness and hope to every detainee and every oppressed person in this country," said Omar al-Jubori, a member of Iraqi Islamic Party the largest Sunni Arab grouping the coalition government.

He added that prisoners would be released in groups of 500 and that a total of 14,000 would eventually be released. A UN report last month said there were 28,700 detainees in Iraq.

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Violence was unabated Wednesday, with four police officers killed in a shootout with gunmen driving in three cars near an interchange in Baghdad's upscale al-Mansour district where a Russian diplomat was killed and four were kidnapped last week. A roadside bomb that detonated in the same place five minutes later injured a police officer.

In northern Kirkuk, gunmen shot and killed a Sunni Arab cleric and member of the local Association of Muslim Clerics.

Just before dawn Wednesday, three rockets landed on a house to kill one man and wound his two brothers. It was unclear what the target was,but the three men were sleeping on their roof in Baladiyat, eastern Baghdad, in an effort to find some cool. Baghdad temperatures have hovered around 116.60 Fahrenheit or higher in recent days.

A roadside bomb killed two police officers and wounded another two near a passport office in eastern Baghdad, police 1st. Lt. Ahmed Muhammad Ali said.

Late Tuesday, a parked car bomb exploded outside a Shiite funeral ceremony in southwestern Baghdad, killing at least four people and wounding 20. Gunmen also killed one student, wounded another and kidnapped three at Baghdad University's business school.