US military frees Reuters photographer in Iraq after 17 months

"How can I describe my feelings? This is like being born again," Jassam told Reuters by telephone as he was greeted emotionally by his family.

"I still cannot believe that my son is next to me," his mother, Fadhila Alwan, said. "Thanks be to God. I cannot speak. I will keep him in my arms for days but I will not be able to get enough of him."

US and Iraqi forces smashed in the doors to Jassam's house in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, in September 2008 and whisked him away. He spent time in a desert prison on the Iraq-Kuwait border, called Camp Bucca, and the smaller Camp Cropper detention centre near Baghdad airport.

The US military never said exactly why it detained him and locked him away for so long, saying the evidence against him was classified. Jassam worked for Reuters as a freelance TV cameraman and photographer. He was one of several Iraqi journalists working for foreign news organisations who have been detained by the US military since the 2003 US invasion. None has ever been charged, triggering criticism from international journalism rights groups.

"I am very pleased his long incarceration without charge is finally over," editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said. "I wish the process to release a man who had no specific accusations against him had been swifter."

The US military has asserted Jassam was a "security threat". The accusations had to do with "activities with insurgents," it said last year, without giving any specifics. The term insurgents generally refers to Sunni Islamist groups. Jassam is a Shi'ite Muslim. The Iraqi Central Criminal Court ruled that there was no case against Jassam.

A month before arresting him, US forces detained Reuters cameraman Ali Mashhadani and held him for three weeks without charge, the third time he was detained. Mashhadani was held for five months in 2005. ■