Prisoners kiss ground after gaining freedom

A car bomb killed 2 people in Baghdad.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Hundreds of newly freed Iraqi prisoners kissed the ground after being dropped at bus stations Wednesday as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched the largest such release since the U.S.-led invasion.
Sunni Arab political leaders welcomed the initiative, which was intended to promote reconciliation in this fractured nation. But some expressed fear the releases would be offset by more arrests. There have been accusations that Sunnis have suffered arbitrary detentions and even torture at the hands of the Shiite-led government.
The government has promised to release a total of 2,000 detainees whose cases have been reviewed, in batches of about 500. The first 594 were freed Wednesday from U.S.- and Iraqi-run prisons around the country, including Abu Ghraib.
Al-Maliki has made security and reconciliation a priority of his new government. But he also has vowed to crack down on violence often blamed on the Sunni-led insurgency, and said the release plan excludes loyalists of ousted leader Saddam Hussein, as well as "terrorists whose hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqi people."
50 abductions
Sectarian tensions were high after Monday's abductions of 50 people in downtown Baghdad by gunmen wearing police uniforms and Sunday's shooting deaths of 21 Shiites north of the capital, including students pulled from their minivans.
Police said Wednesday that 15 of the kidnapped people had been released, some with signs of torture, but provided no details on their identities.
A parked car bomb struck an outdoor market in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least two people and wounding 12, police said -- one of several attacks that killed 21 people nationwide.
One of the newly freed prisoners, Mohammed Jassim Hameed, said he was arrested Dec. 19, 2004, and accused of kidnapping employees of a cell phone company. He said he had spent time in several U.S. detention centers, including Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca.
AP Television News footage showed a U.S. soldier giving a hand to one man who was using crutches as he climbed off a bus.
Representatives of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni Arab group in the governing coalition, hugged the detainees.
Number changed
The prime minister said Tuesday that 2,500 prisoners would be released, but his office changed that number to 2,000 on Wednesday. Iraqi officials have said there is an agreement to release up to 14,000 detainees once their cases have been reviewed. A U.N. report last month said there were 28,700 detainees in Iraq. Most are believed to be Sunni Arabs.
Omar al-Jubori, a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, said the agreement came after negotiations with U.S. Embassy and military officials, as well as street protests. The releases will "give happiness and hope to every detainee and every oppressed person in this country," al-Jubori said.
Lt. Col. Kier-Kevin Curry, a spokesman for U.S. military detainee operations, said it was a joint decision and would be the largest release over a 30-day period since the war began in March 2003. He said those being freed were not guilty of serious crimes and had agreed to renounce violence.
Italy will withdraw
In a new setback to the U.S.-led coalition, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Wednesday that Italy will withdraw all its troops from Iraq by this fall, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.
D'Alema, who was in Baghdad to discuss the plans with Iraqi leaders, said Italy would begin reducing the number of Italian troops in Iraq this month.
The announcement came two days after an attack on an Italian military convoy in southern Iraq killed a soldier and wounded four others. Premier Romano Prodi said the attack would not hasten Italy's withdrawal from the country.
D'Alema's announcement was the first indication by the new center-left government of the timing of the complete pullout of Italy's 2,700 troops from Iraq.