US military frees 9 Iranians held in Iraq
Middle East Desk Report

BAGHDAD—The U.S. military said on Friday it had released nine Iranians held in Iraq, including two it accused of links to Iran’s elite Qods Force, signaling a possible change in tone between the bitter rivals.
The two were among five Iranians captured in the northern city of Arbil in January on suspicion of arming and funding Shi’ite militias. The incident sharpened tensions between Iraq and Iran as well as between Washington and Tehran. “All nine individuals were determined to no longer pose a security risk and to be of no continued intelligence value,” the U.S. military said in a statement.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates denied a link between the announcement this week the nine would be released and a drop in roadside bomb attacks using weapons such as explosively formed penetrators (EFPs), which the United States accuses Iran of supplying to Shi’ite militias.
“There’s no connection between the release and the apparent decline in EFP casualties,” Gates told reporters on his way back to Washington from a visit to Japan.
“I continue to believe that it’s too early to tell whether there really has been a decrease in Iranian supply of EFPs and other weapons into Iraq.”
Iran rejects the charge of supplying weaponry and blames the violence in Iraq, in which tens of thousands of Iraqis have died, on the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.
“American officials in Iraq admitted that the freed Iranians were innocent and they had no links with insurgents in Iraq,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told Iran state radio.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the Iranians had been handed over to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and were then transferred to the Iranian embassy in Baghdad.
Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency said the nine had landed at Tehran’s international airport later on Friday.
Iranian state media identified the pair captured in Arbil as Mohammad Reza Asgari and Mousa Chegini. Asgari told Iranian state television in Iraq that U.S. forces had “attacked” their office in Arbil.
“We were their hostage for 10 months ... Our release shows that their accusations were baseless,” Asgari said.
U.S. officials say the five captured in Arbil were either members of or “associates” of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite Qods Force, which Washington says supports terrorism.
Iran says the “Arbil Five” are all diplomats and has called for the release of all of them. Iranian media said the other seven released were “pilgrims.” The nine freed were among 20 Iranians being held by U.S. forces in Iraq.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari applauded news this week that the Iranians, some of whom had been held for as long as three years, would be released. He said the move could encourage more productive U.S.-Iranian talks on Iraqi security.
The U.S. military announced this week it would release the nine after noting a sharp drop in mortar attacks on Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone last month. Many of those attacks have been blamed on Shi’ite militias using Iranian-made weapons.
U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker has also made note of the ceasefire ordered by Moqtada al-Sadr, the head of the feared Shi’ite Mehdi Army, in August. U.S. officials accuse Sadr of having close links with Iran.
Crocker held three rounds of talks with his Iranian counterpart this year on Iraqi security, ending a diplomatic freeze that lasted almost three decades. But he emerged with little to show after frank exchanges.
Last week, Crocker said he expected another round of talks, again focusing on Iraqi security, in coming weeks. Those talks, which U.S. officials in Baghdad said could happen by the end of the month, again will not cover Iran’s nuclear program.