BAGHDAD – The U.S. military released a cameraman working for Associated Press Television News without charges on Saturday, after nearly three months in detention.

The release of Ahmed Nouri Raziak came two days after a television cameraman for the Reuters news agency, Ali al-Mashhadani, was also set free without charges. He had been held for 26 days.

The U.S. military maintains that a U.N. mandate gives it the authority to indefinitely detain anyone believed to pose a security threat to U.S.-led coalition operations in Iraq.

Raziak, 38, was arrested by U.S. forces at his home in the northern town of Tikrit on June 4. Just last month, U.S. military officials informed AP that Raziak was ordered held for at least six more months for “imperative reasons of security.”

Raziak has worked for APTN since 2003. After his arrest in Tikrit, he spent most of his time in detention at the Camp Cropper lockup near Baghdad International Airport.

In April, the U.S. military released Bilal Hussein, a Pulitzer Prize-winning AP photographer, after holding him for two years.