Hikers' mothers cite magazine report

The mothers of three American hikers held in Iran on suspicion of espionage said Thursday that they hope a magazine report that the three were arrested on the Iraqi side of the border would help lead to their release.

Shane Bauer, 27, of Minnesota; Sarah Shourd, 31, of California; and Josh Fattal, 28, of Elkins Park, were arrested July 31 during what their families have said was a simple hiking trip along the Iraq-Iran border. They have said that if the hikers crossed into Iran, it was an accident.

The Nation reported Thursday that two witnesses from a Kurdish village near the border say the Americans were on Iraqi territory when Iranian forces arrested them. The publication said the witnesses wouldn't let their names be used, fearing retaliation from Iran.

Two Iraqi border security officials contradicted the account, saying the hikers were arrested on Iranian soil.

Shourd's mother, Nora Shourd, told CNN Thursday: "It's shocking it hasn't come out in the public, that it happened to these kids, and that this is the reason they're being held."

Cindy Hickey, Bauer's mother, told the Associated Press that she now hopes "Iranian authorities can investigate this, see it for what it is, and release them immediately."

Bauer, a freelance journalist, wrote at least one piece on Iraq for The Nation, which has said he was not on assignment for the publication when arrested.

Laura Fattal, Josh Fattal's mother, said she was grateful the magazine's report had put the hikers back in the news. "If this helps gain their release, it's wonderful," she said.

The magazine said its story was based on a five-month investigation. It described its witnesses as from Zalum, a tourist village a few miles from Iran.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner called the article's allegations "disconcerting" but said "we have no evidence" to back them up.

"We would just again call on the Iranian authorities to immediately release" the hikers "as well as all other American citizens who are being unjustly detained," Toner said.

The Nation's report said the witnesses followed the obviously Western hikers out of curiosity as they descended a mountain straddling the border. The witnesses said that uniformed guards from Iran's national police force waved the hikers toward the Iranian side using threatening gestures, and that when their calls were ignored, one officer fired a round in the air. The hikers continued to hesitate, and the guards walked a few yards into Iraqi territory to arrest them, the witnesses said, according to The Nation.

The rugged, mountainous region is part of the disputed area between Iraq and Iran, with few border markings.

Brig. Gen. Ahmed Gharib of the Iraqi border police, who is based in the Kurdish-Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyah, said the Americans passed through Zalum on the way to climbing a mountain - the peak of which he said is in Iran. He said they were arrested inside Iranian territory.

Hakim Qadir Hama, director of the Sulaimaniyah provincial security service, said village police warned the Americans about climbing the mountain as they would all but certainly stray across the Iranian border, "but no one listened to them."