Fallujah, May 09: Two trucks brought 15 Iraqis to the edge of this city after they were released today from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, US Marines said. The 15 were the first residents of the Fallujah area to be freed from Abu Ghraib since the end of the marine siege of Fallujah last month, gunnery Sgt. Mark Klein of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine regiment said.

On Saturday, Maj Gen. Geoffrey Miller, commander of detention facilities in Iraq, said that the United States planned to reduce the number of prisoners held at Abu Ghraib but there was no plan to shut down the facility, despite calls from the US Congress.

Miller was named head of prisons in April after Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the commander of Abu Ghraib, was suspended amid allegations of abuse by us soldiers at the prison.
Seven prison guards have been criminally charged for alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Photographs of the abuse were published throughout the world.

Bureau Report