More Iraqi detainees freed by prime minister

BAGHDAD, June 11 (Reuters) A second group out of a total of more than 2,000 Iraqi prisoners was released today under a national reconciliation plan announced by new Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki last week, witnesses said.

Dozens were released at a major Baghdad bus station and the others were freed elsewhere.

One woman yelled and then fainted under a blistering sun when she learned her son was not among those freed from US and Iraqi detention centres.

Maliki's Shi'ite-led government hopes to draw members of the minority Sunni community once dominant under Saddam Hussein into peaceful politics in a bid to defuse the Sunni insurgency.

Nearly 600 detainees were released on Wednesday.

REUTERS CH PM1522