The US military expressed its "disappointment" that an Iraqi court acquitted three men captured as they allegedly tried to place a bomb on a highway south of Baghdad, in a statement received on Tuesday.

"We are deeply disappointed in the court's decision," said Colonel Reginald Allen, commander of the US military's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.

"To free three suspects without a fair trial, after they were found at the crime scene with a clear intent to commit harm, undermines the rule of law and sends a terrible message that can only serve to embolden the enemies of a free and secure Iraq," he added.

The statement said US force captured Mohammed Salim Lafta, Munif Hashim Shinawa and Saeed Ubayd Sabir on March 14 as they tried to plant an improvised bomb and that a triggering device was found in their possession.

It said the trio was handed over to Iraqi authorities for trial in accordance with the terms of a 2008 security pact between Baghdad and Washington.

The military said the defendants' June 20 trial had "lasted just two hours" and that "US military officials were not allowed to testify."

Abdel Sattar al-Beriqdar, spokesman of Iraq's High Council of Justice, justified the court's decision, saying "justice is based on evidence, and if there is none, the judge must release the suspect."

"This is the law, and and in many cases the Americans do not produce enough evidence," he told AFP.

"I do not know why, perhaps through inexperience, or maybe because the way inquiries are conducted in the United States are different from the way they are done in Iraq.

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