Kazakhs Probe Somalia Arms Reports

August 1, 2006 -- Kazakhstan's National Security Committee says it is investigating reports that Russian-made planes bearing Kazakh identification marks recently delivered weapons for Islamic militants in Somalia.

Government officials in Somalia in late July claimed that two Ilyushin-76 cargo planes bearing the emblem of Kazakhstan landed in Mogadishu from Eritrea with loads of weapons of unknown origin.

Both Eritrea and the Somali Islamists, who control Mogadishu, deny the accusations.

Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi has accused Egypt, Libya, and Iran of supplying weapons to Islamists through Eritrea.

(AP, AFP)