US hikers land in New York after two years in Iranian jail

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal arrive in city following release under $1m bail deal mediated by Oman and Iraq last week

Two Americans released from an Iranian prison have landed in New York after being held for more than two years on spying charges.

Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer arrived in the US on Sunday after being released and flown to Oman last week under a $1m (640,000) bail deal.

They were greeted by friends and relatives including Sarah Shourd, their fellow hiker who was freed last year. The three were detained in July 2009 along the Iran-Iraq border. They say they were only hiking in Iraq's relatively peaceful Kurdish region. Since her release last year, Shourd has lived in Oakland, California.

Bauer, a freelance journalist, grew up in Onamia, Minnesota, and Fattal, an environmental activist, is from Philadelphia.


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