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Iraq begins releasing 592 prisoners

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq on Wednesday started releasing 592 detainees under an initiative by Iraq's prime minister to foster national reconciliation.

They were the first group of 2,500 detainees to be released. The program is designed to placate Sunni factions and counter sectarian strife.

Released inmates dropped off at a bus station in Baghdad kissed the ground and sat down and cheered, The Associated Press reported. One man used crutches for support.

"I was arrested from my home on December 19, 2004, so I was accused of kidnapping people working for Iraqna mobile [telephone] company," one released prisoner, Mohammed Jassim, told AP.

Many of those in prison -- estimated at more than 28,000 -- are believed to be held on suspicion of involvement in a Sunni-Arab rebellion against the U.S.-backed, Shiite-led government, according to Reuters.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, under intense pressure to end violence, said Tuesday that the prisoner release would free those who had no clear evidence against them or had been detained mistakenly.

The government has said the detainees will have their cases reviewed and will be released over the coming days in batches of about 500, according to The Associated Press.

Iraqi officials have said there is an agreement to eventually release up to 14,000 detainees once their cases have been reviewed, AP reported.

Fifteen of 50 kidnapped Iraqis found

Fifteen of the 50 people abducted in Baghdad on Monday were found late Tuesday in the Palestine Street area of the city, police officials and an Interior Ministry source said Wednesday.

Victims told authorities they were freed by the kidnappers, who had blindfolded, beat and tortured them.

Police said all of the people showed signs of torture and that three of them had gunshot wounds, each shot in the foot.

The 15 were found in three clusters -- groups of eight, five, and two.

Iraq's Interior Ministry on Tuesday launched an investigation into whether Iraqi police, or insurgents posing as police, were responsible for the kidnappings.

The ministry is under fire from Sunni politicians, who held a news conference Tuesday accusing the government of involvement in the abduction.

The abductors were wearing police commando uniforms and driving at least 13 vehicles with Iraqi police markings when they raided three transportation companies and abducted the 50 people in central Baghdad, witnesses said.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said the abductors were not Iraqi police.

The attack, which witnesses said lasted about an hour and was conducted on a busy downtown Baghdad street, was not interrupted by real Iraqi police commandos.

Other developments

Six police officers were among eight people killed in attacks on Wednesday in Baghdad, and five bodies were found slain in Iraq's volatile capital, an Interior Ministry official told CNN.

CBS Correspondent Kimberly Dozier, wounded more than a week ago in a Baghdad car bombing, is heading back to the United States Wednesday where she will receive further treatment. Shortly after noon (6 a.m. ET), Dozier and several U.S. soldiers were loaded onto a military transport plane at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where she was being treated. The plane is traveling to Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C. (Full story)

A Baghdad court Monday sentenced Mustafa Salman, an Iraqi, to life in prison in connection with the 2004 abduction and killing of Iraqi-British aid worker Margaret Hassan. (Full story)

A roadside bomb in Baghdad killed a U.S. soldier on Monday, the U.S. military said Tuesday. The soldier was assigned to the 49th Military Police Brigade. This brings the number of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq war to 2,469.

The main Baghdad morgue reported receiving 6,025 bodies in the first five months of the year, including those of 1,398 civilians killed in shooting attacks and other violent crimes in May, according to a high-ranking Iraqi Health Ministry official.

CNN's Chris Burns and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

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