Detained Iranians Had Iraq Approval

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The Iraqi foreign minister said Friday that the five Iranians detained by U.S.-led forces in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq were working in a liaison office that had government approval and was in the process of being approved as a consulate.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, also said U.S. forces tried to seize more people at the airport in Irbil, 220 miles north of Baghdad, prompting a confrontation with Kurdish troops guarding the facility that was resolved without casualties. The U.S. military did not immediately comment on that incident.

The arrests drew condemnation from local Kurdish authorities, who protested that they were not informed in advance, and have raised fears that tensions between Iran and the United States were hurting Iraq's interests.

''We don't want Iraq to be a battleground for settling scores with other countries,'' Zebari told CNN later in an interview.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq.html