BAGHDAD, Nov 9: Nine Iranians held in Iraq on suspicion of aiding insurgents were freed by the American military in Baghdad on Friday, amid growing signs that both the US and Iran are seeking to ease tensions over Iraq.

Among those freed are two of five Iranians detained in January in a raid in the Kurdish city of Arbil in northern Iraq accused by the US of supporting insurgency, although Tehran insisted they were diplomats arrested in its consulate.

“They (nine Iranians) have been released and handed over to the government of Iraq,” Major Winfield Danielson said.

Iranian diplomatic sources said Tehran’s ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Kazemi Qomi had travelled early morning to the office of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki where the nine were handed over.

“They have been handed over to the government of Iraq. They are in good health and will be leaving for Iran today,” he said.

The release comes a fortnight after US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said that Tehran had assured Baghdad of helping to stop the flow of armour-piercing bombs, known as explosively formed penetrators (EFPs), into Iraq.

On Tuesday, US military spokesman in Baghdad Rear Admiral Gregory Smith said that a study of recent discoveries of arms and ammunition caches indicated that Iran had reduced shipments of rockets and EFPs to Iraqi insurgents.

On Friday, the military said the Iranians were freed after “a careful review of individual records to determine if they posed a security threat to Iraq, and if their detention was of continued intelligence value”.

“Based on this review, all nine individuals were determined to no longer pose a security risk and to be of no continued intelligence value,” it said in a separate statement. Of the nine, Moussa Chegini and Hamid Reza Asgari Shukuh are two of the five arrested during a raid on a building in Arbil.—AFP