Iraq Press Roundup

Azzaman newspaper reported Friday that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the release of Iranian prisoners convicted of drug smuggling, stealing and destructive actions in Iraq.

The paper said: "300 Iranians are imprisoned in Iraqi prisons.”

It also reported Maliki ordered the release of 200 Iraqi prisoners "after some parties demanded the release of those not linked to crimes.”

Sources in Irbil said Kurdish officials released several thousand prisoners last week from Kurdish prisons.

Wijdan Salim, the minister of human rights, told the paper, “There are 23,600 Iraqi prisoners at the multinational forces’ prisons, and 22,000 at the Iraqi Ministries of Defense and Interior prisons."

Separately, the newspaper reported that hundreds of Iraqis demonstrated Friday against the construction of a wall separating Shulaa and Ghazaliya districts, northwest of Baghdad. They called the wall a "dedication to sectarianism."

Al Itihad newspaper reported Friday on a phenomenon known as "awakening councils" forming throughout Iraq.

"These councils consist of tribesmen who fought al-Qaida," the paper reported.

The report added that the support Iraqi and U.S. governments gave the Anbar awakening council encouraged other tribesmen to announce the establishment of the Baghdad awakening council, south of Baghdad.

The Baghdad council comprises four tribes and "with the support of the multinational forces, they were able to secure the city of Salmanpack, south of Baghdad, last month," said the group’s leader, who was named in the report.

The leader of the council, a former general in the Iraqi army, said they "killed many who have ties to al-Qaida and arrested 200 others."

Al Shebab newspaper reported Friday security authorities imposed a curfew in Ramadi, Anbar province, after the killing of Sheikh Sattar Abu Reesha, leader of the Anbar Salvation Council.

A source at the Ministry of Interior said Friday that Abu Reesha, the head of the Anbar awakening council, died in a car-bomb explosion while returning to his home. The explosion also killed a number of Abu Reesha's family and bodyguards.

The source said "the situation is calm in Anbar now," noting the Interior Ministry plans to send a battalion to stabilize the area.