Journalist is Released By U.S. Military AP Photographer Was Held for 2 Years

The U.S. military released an Associated Press photographer on Wednesday after holding him for more than two years without filing formal charges.

The photographer, Bilal Hussein, 36, was handed over to AP colleagues at a checkpoint in Baghdad. He was taken to the site aboard a prisoner bus and left U.S. custody wearing a traditional Iraqi robe. He was smiling and appeared in good health.

“I want to thank all the people working in AP,” Hussein said. “I have spent two years in prison even though I was innocent. I thank everybody.”

The AP president, Tom Curley, said Hussein “is safely back with AP and his family, and it is a great relief to us.”

The U.S. military had accused Hussein of links to insurgents, but did not file specific charges. In December, military authorities brought Hussein’s case into the Iraqi court system for possible trial.

But an Iraqi judicial panel this month dismissed all proceedings against Hussein and ordered his release. A U.S. military statement Monday said Hussein was no longer considered a threat.

Hussein and the AP denied any improper contacts, saying he was doing the normal work of a photographer in a war zone. He was detained by U.S. marines on April 12, 2006, in Ramadi, about 115 kilometers, or 70 miles, west of Baghdad.

Also Wednesday, an unmanned U.S. drone fired two Hellfire missiles at militants attacking Iraqi soldiers in a Shiite militia stronghold in the southern city of Basra, killing four of the gunmen, the U.S. military said.

In Baghdad, clashes between U.S.-backed Iraqi troops and Shiite militiamen in the Sadr City district killed 2 people and wounded 18, the police said.

The airstrike in Basra occurred about 1 a.m. after militiamen attacked an Iraqi Army patrol with rocket-propelled grenades on the eastern side of the Hayaniya district, the U.S. military said. A vehicle suspected of containing more weapons and ammunition also was destroyed.

The area has seen some of the fiercest fighting since a government offensive against the militias in Basra began March 25.

The Iraqi government removed the top police commander in Basra on Wednesday. But the Defense Ministry denied earlier comments that the top military commander in the southern city, Lieutenant General Mohan al-Furaiji, had also been replaced.

Furaiji and the police major general who was replaced, Abdul- Jalil Khalaf, are among the country’s most senior commanders and are widely respected by U.S. and British military leaders.

In Sadr City, a police officer said those wounded in fighting Tuesday included three women and three children. Sadr City is a stronghold of the Mahdi army militia of the cleric Moktada al-Sadr.

In other violence Wednesday, a mortar shell slammed into a house in eastern Baghdad, killing at least three people and wounding three, the police said.

Separately Wednesday, the U.S. military said two marines were killed Sunday by a roadside bomb in the western province of Anbar.

Originally published by AP, Reuters.

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