Norway frees Iraqi Kurd in militant investigation

OSLO, Feb 17 (Reuters) - An Iraqi Kurd was freed on Tuesday from detention in Norway where police are investigating whether he was leading a militant Islamic group from the Norwegian capital.

"I am very happy, I hope that this case will end," Mullah Krekar told Reuters minutes after he was released from an Oslo jail where he had been held since early January. "They had no evidence against me. I was released."

Krekar, who has had refugee status in Norway since 1991, denies links to terrorism. He says he co-founded the militant Ansar al-Islam group but stepped down as leader in May 2002.

Washington suspects that Ansar al-Islam, whose camps in northern Iraq were targeted by U.S. bombers during the war that ousted Saddam Hussein, is among militant groups behind repeated attacks on U.S. forces on Iraq. It has linked the group to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

more