U.S. forces release 16 detainees from Kirkuk

KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com: U.S. forces released on Sunday 16 detainees local residents of Kirkuk province, according to a member of the city’s local council. “The 16 detainees released on Sunday morning is the 24th batch and were freed after they proved not involved in an legal action, brining the total number of released prisoners from Kirkuk to 200,” Sheikh Abdullah Sami al-Aasi, a member of the Kirkuk Provincial Council’s Arab Bloc, told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The released detainees have been handed over to their families and relatives in Kirkuk at the socio-cultural center in the central part of the city,” he added. Aasi pointed out that the release of prisoners should sustain the national reconciliation project and enhance relations between the Arab Bloc and the U.S. forces, adding other groups of prisoners would be released in the foreseeable future. The oil-rich Kirkuk, a city of mixed Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen population, lies 250 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. AmR (P) 1