U.S. holds onto Iranians seized in Iraq

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration decided this week that it will hold onto five alleged Iranian intelligence agents for several more weeks, at least, instead of freeing them quickly on the heels of last week's release of 15 Britons who had been seized by Iran, U.S. officials said Friday.

Vice President Dick Cheney's foreign policy advisers won an internal administration tussle over what to do with the men, U.S. officials confirmed on condition of anonymity. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice had argued for a quicker release but was overruled, partly out of concern not to make the release appear part of a deal involving the British, the sources said.

The United States has held the five since they were seized in January under disputed circumstances in northern
Iraq. The Bush administration has accused Iran of supplying deadly roadside bombs used against U.S. troops in Iraq and of undermining the fragile democratic government there.

Some U.S. officials have suggested that Iran may have captured the 15 sailors and marines last month partly in hopes that Britain would ask close ally Washington to speed up release of the five. Britain has the second-largest number of troops in Iraq after the United States.

The five are classified as detainees and will be treated like other foreign detainees picked up in Iraq, one official said. That means they will be subject to periodic review of their status, a process that means they will be held "certainly a good number of weeks," and possibly for several months, the official said.

U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe an internal administration decision. The decision was first reported Friday on The Washington Post's Web site.

Iran has recently stepped up complaints over its personnel detained in Iraq, hinting that it might boycott an international conference on Iraq unless American forces release the five Revolutionary Guard agents.

U.S. troops seized the five Iranians in Kurdish northern Iraq, saying they were providing money and weapons to militants.

Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani has said American forces were really after commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guards who were visiting Kurdish officials.

Iran claimed the men were diplomats and that the building they occupied was a diplomatic mission. The United States claims the five hold no diplomatic immunity and were properly seized.

They have not been charged with a crime and little is known about their detention. The United States allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit the men but has so far not allowed Iranian representatives to visit them.

Separately, an Iranian diplomat showed off wounds on his feet Wednesday, and said they were inflicted by drills during two months of detention in Iraq. He said he was harshly interrogated by an American official when he refused to cooperate.

The U.S. has denied any role in the capture of Jalal Sharafi, the second secretary at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, who was seized by gunmen in Baghdad on Feb. 4. Tehran has said he was taken by an Iraqi military unit commanded by U.S. forces, and accusation repeated by several Iraqi Shiite lawmakers.