Reuters journalist freed in Iraq after 12 days

BAGHDAD, June 1 (Reuters) An Iraqi journalist working for Reuters was released from US military custody at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad today after 12 days in detention. Ali al-Mashhadani, 37, was arrested by US Marines in his home town of Ramadi on May 20 when he went to a US base to retrieve Reuters telephones taken from him earlier that week.

He spent five months in US custody last year before being released without charge in January.

Though again no specific allegation or charge was levelled against him, US officials said last week he was held as a security threat. Marines interrogated him intensively about his work as a journalist in the restive Sunni province of Anbar.

The Marines did not contact Reuters at any stage and neither his employer, his family or lawyer had any access to Mashhadani.

Senior US commanders in Baghdad were, however, in contact with Reuters and once he was transferred to their direct control two days ago, Mashhadani was released under a fast-track procedure for reviewing the detention of journalists.

That system was put in place by the military after it held Mashhadani and two other Reuters journalists last year.

Reuters' Managing Editor David Schlesinger said the London-based news agency welcomed the cooperation of military officials in Baghdad but was concerned at the journalist's initial arrest and lengthy interrogation in Ramadi: ''We are hoping for an explanation from the Marines of why our journalist was again subjected to this treatment for over a week when his integrity and professionalism had already been amply demonstrated to them during his previous internment.'' As many as seven journalists for international media groups were held by the US military in Iraq at one stage last year.

One such journalist, from Ramadi, is currently being held.

Mashhadani, who reports and provides video and pictures, is one of a small number of journalists providing news from Anbar province, where US Marines and Sunni Arab insurgents, including al Qaeda militants, are locked in a fierce conflict.

Killings of journalists by all sides in Iraq have made it the deadliest war for the profession and reporters in Anbar, like Mashhadani, work under permanent threat from militant groups hostile to the international media.

Among Mashhadani's recent stories was reporting from the town of Haditha in March. Following Time magazine's revelation of accusations that US Marines shot dead 24 civilians there in November, he filmed fresh interviews with local officials and residents that were widely used by international media.

The investigation is nearing a conclusion and US officials say charges, including murder, may result.

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