US tourists 'being held by Iran'

Washington has said it is checking reports that three US tourists were detained by Iranians while hiking along the northern Iraqi border.

The three are reported to have gone missing in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region which borders Iran.

Local Iraqi officials suggested the Americans might have been detained after straying into Iranian territory.

There was no immediate comment from Iran. A US official said the US embassy in Baghdad was investigating.

"We are using all available means to determine the facts in this case," said the state department official, Robert Wood.

A senior security official in the Iraqi city of Suleymaniyeh, Qadr Hamajan, told Reuters news agency that the Americans were among a group of four tourists had arrived there on Wednesday.

Three of them set off the following day for the tourist resort of Ahmad Awa, about 150km (93 miles) to the east and near the Iranian border, he said.