TEHRAN - An Iranian diplomat freed after being kidnapped in Iraq said on Saturday he had been "tortured" by his captors, among them US intelligence officials, the state news agency IRNA reported.
Jalal Sharafi, who was abducted in Baghdad in February, said he was "subjected to different forms of torture day and night.
"I was kidnapped on a Baghdad street while shopping by officials who had Iraqi defence ministry ID cards and were riding in American forces vehicles," he told the agency.
Sharafi, who was the second secretary at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, was freed on April 3 amid a standoff over the March 23 seizure of 15 British naval personnel by Iran in northern Gulf waters.
"The kidnappers took me to a base near Baghdad airport and I was questioned by Arabic-speaking and English-speaking interrogators," he said.
"The CIA officials' questions focused mainly on Iran's presence and influence in Iraq. When faced with my responses on Iran's official ties with the Iraqi government they increased the torture," he said.
Sharafi was abducted in Karrada, a predominantly Shiite southeastern district in Baghdad, outside a branch of the Iranian state-owned Bank Melli on February 4 by gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms.
The foreign ministry in Tehran claimed at the time that the United States oversaw Iraq's defence ministry and was therefore at least complicit in the abduction. Washington denied the charges.
Sharafi's seizure came amid increasing tension between Iran and the United States after five Iranians were arrested on January 11 in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil on suspicion of aiding and abetting the Iraqi insurgency.
04/07/2007 13:07 GMT