The group asked for help to find the prisoners and return them home and also asked for the help of the Iraqi people or anyone who has information on their whereabouts.

It says six of the prisoners were Muslim clerics, arrested by the Iraqi regime in the southern holy city of Najaf during a rebellion by Shiite Muslims there in 1991 against Saddam's government.

The others were arrested between 1980 and 1990, according to a statement.

The prisoners were transferred in 1993 to the Habbaniyah prison south of Baghdad, where they shared cells with other Arab prisoners, including Kuwaitis captured by the Iraqis during the first Gulf War in 1991, the group said.

Lebanese and Kuwaiti prisoners were moved again at the end of 2002 to the Radwaniyah prison, near Baghdad's main international airport, it added.

SPACE.WIRE