Ethiopia frees eight Kenyans

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Eight Kenyans deported to Ethiopia and held there as terror suspects for more than a year have returned home, an official said.

The eight men were jailed last year on suspicion of being members of an Islamic militia driven out of Somalia by Ethiopian troops, BBC reported Saturday.

A Kenyan government official said the men have all been returned to their homes.

"Eight Kenyans who had been fighting with Somali separatists and who had been held in Ethiopia were early this morning returned home to Kenya," government spokesman Alfred Mutua said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch said at least 150 men from several countries had been rounded up near the border with Somalia after the fall of the Union of Islamic Courts in January 2007.

The detainees were then deported either to Somalia or to Ethiopia, BBC reported.