13 January 2004	Tuesday	20 Ziqa'ad 1424

BAGHDAD, Jan 12: Reuters said on Monday it had made a formal complaint to the US military about the arrest and treatment of three of its staff held after a helicopter crash near the town of Falluja.

Asked about the complaint at a news conference on Monday, the US army in Baghdad said it was still investigating the incident and would announce no conclusions until that inquiry was complete.

The three Iraqis were detained on January 2 and released around 72 hours later. A Reuters spokesman said the global news and information firm had called on the US military swiftly to complete its investigation and provide a detailed response to the complaint.

He declined to give further details pending a response from US authorities. "The investigation is ongoing," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the US Army in Iraq, told reporters in Baghdad.

"We are going to hold a full and thorough investigation on the basis of information provided not only by our troops on the ground but also the information provided by the Reuters journalists. It would be premature to make any conclusions before that investigation is complete," Kimmitt said.

The detained Reuters staff were Baghdad-based cameraman Salem Ureibi and Falluja-based freelance television journalist Ahmad Mohammad Hussein al-Badrani and driver Sattar Jabar al-Badrani.-Reuters