Iranians held by U.S. in Iraq return to Iran-TV

TEHRAN, July 12 (Reuters) - Five Iranian officials detained by the U.S. military in Iraq for up to two years returned to Iran on Sunday, three days after they were released in Baghdad, state television reported.

The capture of the Iranians, who include officials U.S. forces accused of arming Shi'ite Muslim militias at the height of Iraq's sectarian war, stoked tension between Tehran and Washington, also at odds over Iran's nuclear programme.

The men were first handed over by their U.S. jailers to Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim-led government, which is friendly with Iran, and transferred to Iran's Baghdad embassy on Thursday.

They landed at Tehran's Mehrabad airport on Sunday for a welcome ceremony attended by their families and senior government officials, Iran's English-language Press TV reported.

The White House said last week it had handed over the men at the request of the government in Baghdad, in compliance with a U.S.-Iraq security agreement.

Under a bilateral security pact that took effect in January, the United States must gradually transfer more than 10,000 detainees it still holds to the Iraqi government to be either charged in local courts or released. (Reporting by Zahra Hosseinian; writing by Fredrik Dahl; editing by Tim Pearce)