Prison statistics from Iraq HR Minister

Iraq's Human Rights Minister has announced the number of prisoners held in the country is near 10,000. The US military has stated that 353 of those held are "foreign terrorists." The US military stated that the announcement by the Iraqi transitional goverment was "generally correct," but refused to comment further. The US controls the Iraqi prison system and shares information with the transitional government as it sees appropriate.

But the ranks of prisoners may have shot up again after hundreds were detained during major operations against insurgents south of the capital, in Samarra and Mosul, north of Baghdad and the massive assault on the former rebel stronghold of Fallujah, west of Baghdad.