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Foreign terror suspects freed

    NAIROBI

    The Transitional National Government (TNG) of Somalia has freed 11 foreign nationals who were arrested in December for suspected links with terrorist groups.

    Zakariya Mahmud Haji, the TNG information minister, told IRIN in December that nine of the men "were of Iraqi nationality", and had been arrested "because we are not sure who they are".

    The nine, along with two Eritrean nationals, were arrested on 18 December last year on the orders of the anti-terrorist task force set up by the TNG after the 11 September attacks in New York. They were released on Tuesday after "a long police investigation found that they had no links with any terrorist organisation", the TNG director of information, Abdirahman Dinari, told IRIN on Wednesday.

    He said the police investigations had found that some of them were in possession of illegal Somali documents, "such as passports, which were confiscated". They were, however, free to stay in the country, added Dinari.

    Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is also acting foreign minister, told an Italian parliamentary commission that "it seems clear that there are no terrorist bases in the country", and that Somalia was not a target of the war on terrorism, Reuters news agency reported on Tuesday. He also said that "there are no plans for an attack".

    There has been press speculation that Somalia could become a target of American military action because of suspected terrorist bases sited there.

    Dinari welcomed Berlusconi's remarks, saying they reflected "what we have been saying all along, that there are no terrorist bases here". Somalia has consistently denied having any terrorist bases on its territory, and has offered the international community full cooperation if its representatives came to Somalia to investigate.

    "This is definitely a welcome sign, but we expect the Italian government to do more for Somalia, considering the historical relations between the two countries," Dinari told IRIN. Southern Somalia was formerly an Italian colony.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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