Kampala — ABOUT 20 people suspected of having links with Al Qaeda have been arrested and questioned by security authorities in Uganda since the beginning of the year.

According to security sources, the majority of them have been released and some deported after under-going what security officials described as "thorough screening".

"We have a computerised list of the most wanted people who engage in terrorist activities and with links to Al Qaeda. We have nabbed 18 since this year began," said the security source attached to the immigration department at Entebbe Airport.

The source said most of the suspects are handed over to the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) and Internal Security Organisation (ISO) for questioning.

The list, of over 100 most wanted suspects, was released by the US' Federal Bureau of Investigations and Central Intelligence Agency after the September 11, 2001 attack that left over 3,000 dead in the US.

Al Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden, tops the list of terrorist organisations in the world. The 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam were the group's first major operations in East Africa.

The majority of the suspected Al Qaeda agents picked by Ugandan security for questioning are said to be from Pakistan, London, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, Canada and Ireland.

The External Security Organisation (ESO) Deputy Director General, Emmy Allio, on Friday confirmed that some terrorist suspects are held for questioning.

He said four Yemen nationals who had come for the Afro-Arab summit that ended two weeks ago were held briefly after they were suspected of having links with Al Qaeda. "They had names similar to those of the most wanted persons in our data bank. They were not detained, but held overnight in a Kampala hotel," said Allio.

The suspects were later released as their faces differed from those on the security list. He, however, declined to divulge the names of the four.

The ISO chief, Amos Mukumbi, declined to discuss the number of people arrested for having links with Al Qaeda saying: "Those are very sensitive security matters."

Asked to comment on the arrest of London-based Somali national Ali Abdi Hassan, who was arrested in Entebbe Airport as he entered Uganda on February 12, 2008, Mukumbi said: "Leave that issue alone."

A senior official attached to CMI who preferred to remain anonymous said: "It may be true that the number is 28, but most were set free after questioning. I, however, can't tell you how many we still have at the moment."