London, July 02: All but one of the 4,000 men taken prisoner by British troops in Iraq and handed over to the United States have been released, the Ministry of Defence said today. The ministry said that the men were held as prisoners of war in a series of camps before their gradual release. It declined to provide information on the whereabouts or status of the last remaining prisoner. An opposition lawmaker earlier complained that the government had ignored many of his questions about the captives, around 28 of whom were not Iraqi nationals. Lord Oakeshott, a Liberal Democrat, said the ministry, in written answers to his questions, ignored his query about whether any were being treated as "unlawful combatants" - a status that would deny them the protections of the Geneva Convention.
The ministry today said that none were given that status. Bureau Report