U.S. Detains, Releases 8 Iranians In Iraq

Iran Calls Incident "Interference"; Senior U.S. Commander Calls It "Regrettable"

(CBS/AP)  A group of eight Iranians, including two diplomats, were released by U.S. forces Wednesday after being detained because unauthorized weapons were found in their cars, the U.S. military said.

Iran reacted swiftly to the news, summoning a Swiss diplomat who represents American interests in Tehran to protest the detentions, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini called the U.S. action an act of "interference" in Iraq's internal affairs and "inconsistent" with the responsibilities of U.S.-led occupation forces in Iraq.

Four cars carrying the Iranians, as well as seven Iraqis, were stopped at a checkpoint Tuesday evening and then allowed to proceed to the nearby Sheraton Ishtar hotel, where they were later taken into custody and questioned, the military said.

Saadi Othman, an adviser to Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. general in Iraq, told British Broadcasting Corp. television that the incident was "regrettable" and had "nothing to do" with President Bush's remarks on Tuesday, when he lashed out at Iran for meddling in Iraq's affairs and fomenting instability here.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hosyhar Zebari told the British Broadcasting Corp. the Iranians were released after Iraqi officials intervened and told the Americans they were part of an official delegation on a legal visit to discuss electricity cooperation.

Troops seized three weapons from the cars - an AK-47 assault rifle and two 9mm pistols that had been in the possession of the Iraqis in the group. The Iraqis were serving as a protective detail but had no weapons permits, the U.S. military said.

Videotape shot Tuesday night by AP Television News showed U.S. troops leading a group of blindfolded and handcuffed men out of the hotel in central Baghdad. U.S. troops confiscated a laptop, cell phones and a briefcase full of Iranian and American money in the hotel, the military said.

"Following the brief room search the group was taken to a coalition facility for questioning," the U.S. military said in a statement. "The Iranian nationals had passports. It was later determined that two of the Iranian individuals were carrying diplomatic credentials."

All the Iranians were released Wednesday to Iraqi officials, the military said. The fate of the Iraqis - who identified themselves with Iraqi Ministry of Electricity badges - was not immediately clear, and the military did not say whether the confiscated items were returned.

The electricity ministry declined comment.

An Iranian diplomat, who refused to give his name, told The Associated Press that one of those released contacted the embassy Wednesday morning to say that they had been handed over to Iraqi authorities.

"At 7 a.m. today, a member of the delegation called the embassy and said they are now at the prime minister's office," the diplomat said. "The Americans released them. They held them until seven this morning."

The Iranian embassy said the Iranians included two embassy staffers and six members of a delegation from Iran's Energy Ministry. The diplomat had earlier said there were seven Iranians held and one diplomat.

The embassy said the men had not yet been in to explain in full what happened, and that it was not sure whether their belongings had been returned.

Meanwhile, Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr (seen at left in a file photo) has ordered a six-month suspension of activities by his Mahdi Army militia in order to reorganize the force, an aide said Wednesday.

An al-Sadr spokesman said the suspension of activities would mean the militia will not launch attacks against U.S. and coalition forces.

The aide, Sheik Hazim al-Araji, said on Iraqi state television that the goal was to "rehabilitate" the organization, which has reportedly broken into factions, some of which the U.S. maintains are trained and supplied by Iran.

"We declare the freezing of the Mahdi Army without exception in order to rehabilitate it in a way that will safeguard its ideological image within a maximum period of six months starting from the day this statement is issued," al-Araji said, reading from a statement by al-Sadr.

The order was issued following two days of bloody clashes in theShiite holy city of Karbala which claimed more than 50 lives. Iraqi security officials blamed Mahdi militiamen for attacking mosque guards, some of whom are linked to the rival Badr Brigade militia.

A spokesman for al-Sadr, Ahmed al-Shaibani, denied that the Mahdi Army was involved in the Karbala fighting. Al-Sadr called for an independent inquiry into the clashes and urged his supporters to cooperate with the authorities "to calm the situation down," al-Shaibani said.

U.S. forces detained the eight Iranians against the backdrop of increasing tensions between Washington and Tehran over the detention of each other's citizens, as well as U.S. accusations of Iranian involvement in Iraq's violence and alleged Iranian efforts to develop nuclear bombs.

Iran has constantly complained about the U.S. detention since Jan. 11 of five Iranians who were in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil. U.S. officials say the five include the operations chief and other members of Iran's elite Quds Force, which is accused of arming and training Iraqi militants.

The Iranian regime denies any involvement in the violence wracking its neighbor.

On Tuesday President Bush strongly criticized Iran in a speech to the American Legion convention in Reno, Nev., in which he presented a ringing defense of the unpopular Iraq war effort.

"I have authorized our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran's murderous activities," said Bush, whose administration has accused Iran of arming Shiite militias in Iraq. "The Iranian regime must halt these actions."

The strains have many people in the region worried about the possibility of fighting between the U.S. and Iran.

But while making his latest defense of Iran's nuclear program earlier Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the possibility of any U.S. military action against Iran, saying Washington has no plan and is not in a position to take such action.

Ahmadinejad declared that U.S. political influence in Iraq is "collapsing rapidly" and that Tehran is ready to help fill any power vacuum.

[glaswolf]

The Generals were wise in separating a regretable action from Administrative intimations. The Iranians ought to be commended for being casual in asserting an inability for the US to invade and set aside an authorized consideration as wartime rhetoric from an uncertain American representation. We don''t need the violations of protocol, but they are tolerable as long as our officers remember they were declared gentlemen formally to use their intuition and reflect our general sense of honor. As for Israel, I expect her to ultimately ally herself with those she has managed to evolve with for 2,000 years, namely the Arab Semites and their Turkistanic allies. I don''t expect them to trust those who exterminated one third of their diaspora, the Western Europeans. If Israel launches, her missiles are more likely to go NorthWest than East.

[j-whitman]

edintex,,, I''m not a supporter of Ahmadinejad on denying the Holocaust, but he''s no dummy & knows it was real,,
,, I think he might have been making more of a point how we Americans who helped fund Hitler ignored the existance of concentration camps since thier early rise in the 1930''s,, and the end result of creating a state for them, instead of retruniing them to thier homeland as we would do today.

[j-whitman]

edintex,,,, Quite frankly, I''m one who suppots the idea they should have been returned to thier countries of origin to rebuild thier nations...

What we did by moving them to Isreal after WW2 would be the equivalent to giving Iraqi refugees 1/3 of Texas.

[j-whitman]

edintex,,, Figure it out

, On the subject of American Jews who don''t support AIPAC there are over 135,000 articles.
, On the subject of American Jews who don''t support Zionism there are over 1,560,000 articles
, On the subject of Isreals Jews not supporting Zionism there are over 1,690,000 articles

[edintex]

j-whitman:
Wikipedia defines ZIONISM as:
"An international political movement that supports a homeland for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel."
Please explain how that definition threatens the Jews in Iran or anywhere else in the world. Are you saying that the Jews would be better off being scattered around the world?

[j-whitman]

edintex,,, We agree on the Arabs, but think a moment about Iran with the largest population of Jews in the Middle East 2nd only to Isreal,, They also have a fear of Zionism from Isreal & the problems it is causing them.
.. They are not in concentration or re-education camps, many have government jobs.

[j-whitman]

edintex,,, Excuse me, I don''t hate Isreal they have as much right to defend thier country as anyone..
.. But, They Have Nuclear Weapons & They Are The 4th Largest Arms Expoter In The World,
,, Zionism has now made them a threat.... Ask Isrealites who don''t support Zionism.

[edintex]

j-whitman:
SOMEBODY should protect Israel. It has been made abundantly clear that their Arab neighbors want them gone; dead or alive just like the Nazis wanted. Without U.S. protection, the poeple of Israel would be "permanently gone" in no time.

As for Israels "human rights" abuses, I think Israel has shown remarkable restraint in not totally destroying the aggressors all around them. If our neighboring countries sponsored bombings and missile attacks against our women, children and men here on U.S. soil, how long do you think we would wait to roll all over them and make them a new territory? Probably just a few days.
As for "unchecked USA support of Isreal over thier neighbors", take a look at the BILLIONS (plural) of dollars the U.S. grants to Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians EVERY YEAR. The U.S. owes no apologies to ANYONE IN THE WORLD when it comes to economic support and charity.

Lastly, you MUST be a bleeding heart Islamist because no Jew living anywhere in the world would "blame" the U.S. for supporting them financially and militarily as well as our protection. Only an enemy of jewish peace would "blame" the U.S. for that.

[j-whitman]

edintex -- Wrong again, that logic is why America is less safe, It''s still Isreals Human Rights abuses, military control over a civiallian population since 1946, murder missions by Massad, & unchecked USA support of Isreal over thier neighbors --
--- By the way American Jews, Jews in Isreal & Jews around the world lay blame on Isreal''s & American''s Zionism & AIPAC.

[edintex]

tuckerndfw:
Its a good thing that YOU and the rest of the Bush-o-phobic people on here are not our president right now. If you were, my guess is everyone of us here in the U.S. would be wearing turbans, sporting lice infected ratty beards and praying to the east five times a day. Even worse, our women would be third class citizens.

The educated & sane world (which DOES NOT include ANY U.S. liberal democrats) knows that Iran is the real source of terrorism in the middle east. And now that the US forces are on two land sides and one water side of Iran, we should go ahead and squeeze their little pinheads NOW. We may not get another chance to knock them down before they are armed with nuclear tipped missiles or running suitcase bombs around to every non Islam country.