Mogadisho, 15 March 2007 - The transitional federal government in Somalia has strongly dismissed on Wednesday reports saying that the United States government has covert jails inside Somalia.

Somali’s interior minister Mohamed Mohamud Guled known as ‘Gama-dhere’ said the US has no prison cells in Somalia describing it as false news exaggerated by the media.

“There is no need for American government to have jails in the country but the interim government is able to hold the extradited prisoners in its detentions,” said Guled denying the news on US jails in the country as baseless assertion.

His latest comment was a response to a report issued by Kenya based Islamist human rights group revealing that Washington has clandestine prisons in Somalia and Ethiopia. This group claims that 150 Islamist terror suspects from 17 countries are being held in these jails.

The report says the detainees include fewer than 7 years old children who were arrested in Kenya and then extradited to Somalia and Ethiopia.

In December 2006, Ethiopian forces helped interim government troops topple the Islamic Courts which ruled the much of the country with Sharia law for six months.

Source: Somalinet