Twenty-three Iraqi military and police officers detained the previous week were released Tuesday after all charges against them were dropped, an interior ministry official said.
The officers, drawn from both the defense and interior ministries, had signed commitments to appear if recalled for further inquiry. Authorities initially accused them of belonging to Al-Awda, an underground network of former Baath party members, Republican Guard veterans, and intelligence personnel working to restore Saddam Hussein's party to power. The group first surfaced in June 2003, three months after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam.
Officials subsequently shifted the allegations from coup plotting to terrorism links. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki denied the coup accusations outright, and all charges were ultimately abandoned.
General Raymond Odierno, the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, confirmed the releases at a Tuesday press conference. Some reports suggested the arrests may have been timed ahead of provincial elections set for 31 January, the country's first since 2005, though the official accusations changed more than once before the case was closed.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in December 2008, in its own words.