By Mussab Al-Khairalla

BAGHDAD, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Isam Mohammed sits quietly in the corner of a small U.S. military tent filled with 55 other Iraqi detainees only minutes away from tasting their long-awaited freedom.

Visibly nervous and excited that his four-months in detention was coming to an end, 22-year-old Mohammed took a long pause, contemplating what he had gone through before his frustration settled in.

"If I told you why I was detained you would probably laugh," he told Reuters on Wednesday.

"The Americans took us in the middle of the night and asked us to inform them of our neighbours' activities. I didn't know any of them because I had only moved to the area 20 days before my arrest," Mohammed said.

"I still can't believe I'm going back home. Now I can spend Eid with my family," he said in reference to this weekend's Eid festival marked by Muslims to celebrate the end of daylight fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.

According to U.S. military figures, 83 percent of the 25,000 prisoners in U.S. detention are from the minority Sunni community and are accused of involvement in the insurgency during which tens of thousands of Iraqis have died since 2003.

The U.S. military has released 50-60 detainees a day to mark Ramadan, which began in mid-September.

Detainees often complain of physical abuse and prolonged detentions caused by what they describe as an ineffective judicial system.

Freed detainees first had to pledge to an Iraqi judge who signed their release papers that they would help stabilise and secure their neighbourhoods and not attack U.S. or Iraqi forces.

The judge to whom the pledges are made said 1,565 detainees had been released from U.S. prisons so far during Ramadan, which ends this weekend.

"Let's live in peace once you are out. Many here are innocent and you left more innocent brothers behind you in jail," the judge, who did not give his name, told released detainees.

"If your areas remain safe, we can prove that you were innocent and we can release more people," he said.

The high number of Sunni Arab detainees and their treatment is an emotional issue for their community. Iraq's Sunni Arab vice president, Tareq al-Hashemi, has long called for their release.

It is also seen as a stumbling block on the way to wider reconciliation with majority Shi'ites who make up 16 percent of those held in U.S. detention centres.

Another Sunni Arab detainee, an 18-year-old from the small town of Taji just north of Baghdad who did not want to reveal his name, said he was detained with his father and brother by U.S. forces a month after his last birthday.

"I haven't seen my family for six months now and I can't wait to see my family again," he said.

"This Eid will hopefully allow me to start a new life and forget time I was forced to waste this year."

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