Iraq to release abducted Iranians

Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki pledged Monday that a group of kidnapped Iranian nationals who were kept in Iraq would be released before the beginning of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which falls this year on September 13-October 12.

Al-Maliki made the remarks in a meeting with the visiting Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mohammad-Reza Baqeri. Five Iranian diplomats were taken captive by US forces in the city of Erbil, northern Iraq, in January 2007.