U.S. soldiers arrested members of an Iranian government delegation Tuesday at a hotel in Baghdad

The Iranians, who work for Tehran's power ministry, were in the capital at the invitation of Iraqi government officials to sign an electricity supply contract, the news agency said.

The U.S. military said it detained some "Iranian citizens with Iranian passports" and their Iraqi escorts, who carried Iraqi Department of Energy badges, at a checkpoint in the Abu Nuwas market in eastern Baghdad's Rusafa district.

The Iranians and Iraqis were detained when "a group of individuals in several vehicles" stopped at the checkpoint, and "several occupants were observed to have weapons," the military said.

Soldiers searched the vehicles and confiscated the weapons because the Iraqis did not have government-issued cards permitting them to carry weapons, the U.S. military statement said.

When asked about the discrepancy regarding the location of the incident, the military said it had no clarification.