The U.S. military said on Saturday that it released more than 11,000 detainees from its prisons in Iraq so far in 2008.
The military will continue releasing detainees from the U.S.-run prisons to reach the goal of more than 12,000 releases by mid-September, a military statement quoted Major Neal Fisher, spokesman for the U.S. military's detainees operations in Iraq, assaying.
On Aug. 2, the military revealed that it held a total of around 21,000 detainees, some 17,000 of whom at Camp Bucca near Basra in southern Iraq, and more than 3,000 others at Camp Cropper in Baghdad.
The total number also included a dozen women, over 300 juveniles, about 200 foreigners and about 200 detainees over the age of 60, it said in an earlier statement.
However, the Iraqi human rights ministry said earlier this month that some 47,400 detainees were held in U.S. and Iraqi prisons across the country.
The U.S. military frequently says that its troops are authorized by UN Security Council Resolution 1790 and the Geneva Convention to detain anyone necessary for imperative reasons of security.
Source:Xinhua
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