KUWAIT, April 25: Kuwait freed 10 Iraqi common law prisoners and repatriated them back home on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

The Iraqi men, most of whom were jailed in Kuwait for a few months and had completed their sentences, were reunited with their families at the Kuwait-Iraq border under the supervision of Kuwait's branch of the ICRC.

"These are common law detainees, meaning they have nothing to do with, and were not detained in relation to the conflict of 1990-91 (Gulf war)," ICRC communication officer Fouad Bawaba told Reuters.

Mr Bawaba said the ICRC made sure the men were returning to Iraq willingly. He said most of them were detained recently. The repatriation was agreed and coordinated by Kuwaiti authorities and U.S.-led forces in Iraq. Kuwait was the launchpad for last year's US-led war in Iraq which toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, whose forces invaded the Gulf Arab state of Kuwait in 1990. -Reuters