BAGHDAD — The American military unexpectedly released five Iranians on Thursday after holding them for two and a half years on charges they had orchestrated deadly attacks in Iraq. Iraqi officials promptly promised to turn them over to the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad.
The Iranians, whom the Americans accused of being senior operatives of Iran’s Quds force, an elite unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, have been a point of contention between the United States, Iran and Iraq ever since they were seized in a predawn raid in the northern Kurdish city of Erbil in January 2007. An adviser to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, Yassein Majid, confirmed the men’s release but provided no additional details. American military and diplomatic officials did not immediately comment.
The reasoning behind the timing of the release was unclear. American military officials have been gradually releasing thousands of Iraqis from detention camps under the terms of the security agreement between the United States and Iraq, but thousands of prisoners for now remain in American custody.
The Obama administration has sought to explore the possibility of negotiations with Iran over some particularly contentious issues, but those tentative diplomatic entreaties have been complicated by the popular upheaval in Iran following last month’s presidential election.
Mr. Maliki, who has both cultivated ties with Iran and criticized its interference in Iraqi affairs, clearly sought to exploit their release diplomatically. He met with the five men — whom the Iranians maintained were diplomats who should have been granted immunity from arrest — in the prime minister’s office in Baghdad.
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