AMMAN, Dec 21 (AFP) - The fate of five Jordanian truck drivers arrested in Iraq on suspicion of carrying weapons remained unclear Tuesday, with a union leader saying they had been released and officials denying that.
"The investigation with the five men determined they were innocent but four of them are still with the Americans at the (Baghdad) airport, waiting to be given back their trucks," union leader Abdel Rahim al-Jamal told AFP.
"One of them phoned me and said that he was heading back to Jordan, but that the other four were still at the airport because they don't want to leave without their trucks," said Jamal.
On Sunday Jamal, a head of the truck drivers' union in northern Jordan, said the five men had been released from US custody and cleared of any wrongdoing.
But Jordanian government spokeswoman Asma al-Khodr told reporters that "officially they have not been released yet".
"Efforts are still underway in coordination with the charge d'affaires at the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad to release them," Khodr said.
The drivers were seized on suspicion of possessing unlicenced weapons earlier this month by US-led coalition forces, Khodr said.
But Jamal insisted that the drivers were seized by Iraqi national guards in a truck depot and handed over to US forces on December 3 after unloading cars to be sold in the embattled country.
12/21/2004 15:13 GMT - AFP