The International Committee of the Red Cross says it has made its first visit to security detainees held by the Iraqi government - after seeking access to the detainees for more than a year.
A Red Cross official, Dorothea Krimitsas, says the humanitarian group met with some of the detainees privately in order to monitor their detention conditions and treatment.
The visit took place in October at Fort Suse near Sulaimaniya in Kurdish northern Iraq.
Krimitsas says at the time some 1,700 inmates were held at Fort Suse, which was once controlled by U.S.-led forces in Iraq, but is now controlled by Iraq's central government. She says the Red Cross hopes to visit more detention facilities in Iraq.
The Geneva Convention calls for the International Red Cross to monitor conditions for prisoners of war and other detainees.
The humanitarian agency already has access to about 20,000 detainees held by U.S.-led forces in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
