Iraqi official: 3 of 5 US contractors freed

[June 11, 2009]  BAGHDAD (AP) -- Three American contractors detained during an investigation into the slaying of another American have been released on bond, but two others remain in custody on drug charges, Iraqi officials said Thursday.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh had said an investigative judge had ordered all five released due to insufficient evidence. But he said Thursday that two of the men were being held on drug charges.

The others were released on bond due to the ongoing nature of the case, al-Dabbagh said.

The U.S. Embassy said it could only confirm that one of the contractors had been released on bond. It did not provide other details.

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces detained the contractors June 3 in connection with an investigation into the stabbing death of contractor Jim Kitterman of Houston. But there have been conflicting accounts about the specific allegations against them.

The case has been seen as the first test of a provision in a U.S.-Iraqi security pact that lifted the immunity U.S. contractors had enjoyed for most of the 6-year-old war.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have not identified the contractors.

The wife of one of the contractors, Donald Feeney Jr., said she spoke with her husband earlier Wednesday and he said he was being released.

Judy Feeney, of Fayetteville, N.C., said the last few days have been hectic, but the families of all the contractors were confident of a positive outcome.

An official of Corporate Training Unlimited, a Fayetteville, N.C.-based security company, has said the five included the 55-year-old Feeney, who founded the company in 1986, his son Donald Feeney III, 31, and three other employees.

Company spokeswoman Sarah Smith has said the CTU contractors knew Kitterman as "simply comrades living in the Green Zone."

CTU trains corporate officials on how to avoid terrorists while they are overseas. The company, which has operated in Iraq since 2003, also has gained attention for rescuing American children taken to foreign countries in custody disputes.

Kitterman, a 60-year-old construction company owner, was found dead in his car on May 22 in Baghdad's protected Green Zone. He had been blindfolded, bound and stabbed.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have said the five were not accused in Kitterman's death but were detained in a raid that was part of the investigation into the killing.

The U.S. Embassy said FBI agents were present during a search of the men's quarters at the request of Iraqi authorities who are handling the investigation.

[Associated Press; By KIM GAMEL]

Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Mitch Weiss in Charlotte, N.C., contributed to this report.

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