US extends carrots in Iraq amid more casualties

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 08, 2004

US extends carrots in Iraq amid more casualties

The US-led occupational authority in Iraq took an additional conciliatory step Wednesday by announcing the release of hundreds of detainees, but resistance attacks persisted, with 35 US troops wounded in the latest one near Baghdad.

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Carrot-and-stick move

US civil administrator Paul Bremer said Wednesday that the coalition provisional authority will release more than 500 prisoners now in custody in Iraq.

The carrot-and-stick move was made as a gesture to "give impetus to those Iraqis who wish to reconcile with their countrymen," Bremer indicated at a press conference, adding the first batch of 100 detainees will be freed Thursday.

A prominent person or a religious or tribal leader is required to guarantee that the released prisoner renounce violence, and anyone who violates the parole would be detained again, Bremer said.

"This is not a program eligible for those with blood-stained hands. No person involved in the death or serious bodily injury to any human being...will be released," he said.

The de facto ruler of Iraq also pledged to grant family members of the remaining detainees more access to their relatives behind the bars.

Later, US senior spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said exactly506 prisoners will be released within the next week and 28 of the first 100 due free Thursday are juveniles.

The US military said it currently has around 9,000 people in custody in Iraq, but unconfirmed estimates put the total at 18,000.

Iraqi wives and mothers have constantly protested at the gates of prisons across Iraq over the indiscriminate detention by US soldiers of their loved ones.

More coalition causalities

In a statement issued late Wednesday, the US military said 35 US soldiers were wounded when insurgents fired six mortar rounds that hit a logistical base west of Baghdad after sundown.

The statement said the soldiers were receiving emergency treatment at combat hospitals. It did not elaborate on the types of injuries or the condition of the wounded.

Mortars were frequently used by resistance fighters in Iraq, especially in the so-called Sunni Triangle north and west of Baghdad.

Wednesday evening's assault appeared to be one of the most violent in a series of unabated attacks against occupation forces following the capture of Saddam Hussein on Dec. 13.

A total of 331 US soldiers have been killed by hostile fire in Iraq since the US-led coalition forces launched the war on Iraq last March.

Meanwhile, a British soldier was also killed Wednesday in an accident on a training range near Basra in southern Iraq, the British Ministry of Defense said. The ministry said the incident was under investigation.

Before the death of the Scottish soldier, the British military had reported 52 soldiers killed in Iraq.

In another development, an Iraqi policeman and a civilian were gunned down at a checkpoint west of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, 280 km north of Baghdad, early Wednesday.

US-backed Iraqi police was a favorable target by insurgents, who have also slain pro-US political and religious figures across the war-ravaged country.

While the US occupational authority last month said 160 Iraqi policemen were killed in post-war Iraq, Iraqi officials estimated that the number could be as high as 210.

At the joint press conference held with interim Iraqi leader Adnan Pachachi, Bremer unveiled another program of new rewards of up to millions of dollars on heads of key Iraqi fugitives.

"The names of the wanted individuals and the amount of the reward for each will be released in the next 24 hours," said Bremer.

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