Iraqi Interior Minister says the 2 British soldiers were not handed to any militia.

Iraq-Terror Blogspot
Sep. 22, 2005

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/wato/

Source BBC World at One Radio programme.

On the BBC radio news programme, The World at One, 21 September 2005, the Iraqi Interior Minister stated that the two British soldiers arrested by the Iraqi police were not handed over to any militia, but were kept in the police station.

It was also stated on the programme that it was quite normal for 'militias' to be integrated into the police; the police were bound to contain people who had previously belonged to various organisations.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2005/September/focusoniraq_September122.xml§ion=focusoniraq

Iraqi Interior Minister Baqir Solagh Jabr disputed the British military’s account of how it freed the captured soldiers in the southern city of Basra on Monday.

He told the BBC that the two British soldiers never left police custody or the jail in Basra, were not handed to militants, and that the British army acted on a “rumor” when it stormed the jail looking for them.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-09-21T124043Z_01_HO032036_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAQ.xml

Iraq's interior minister disputed the British military's account. Bayan Jabor told the BBC the men had never left police custody or the jail in Basra and were not handed to militants.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5292689,00.html

Iraqi Interior Minister Baqir Solagh Jabr disputed the British military's account of how it freed the captured soldiers in the southern city of Basra on Monday.

He told the BBC that the two British soldiers never left police custody or the jail in Basra, were not handed to militants, and that the British army acted on a ``rumor'' when it stormed the jail looking for them...

In Basra, British and Iraqi forces continued to disagree about what had happened there.
Two Iraqi citizens who were wounded in clashes between British forces and Iraqi police died in a hospital Wednesday, raising the civilian death toll to five, police said.