Uganda has released Somali Defence Minister Youssuf Mohamed Siad a few hours after he was picked up by security forces in the Ugandan capital Kampala. Minister Siad was on an unannounced visit to family members in Kampala when state security officers detained him.

The Ugandan government now says the arrest was a mistake and have released the Somali defence chief. The government says it had received a tip claiming a Somali dissident had entered the country.
 

Earlier, the Ugandan military intelligence chief said the arrest was "a security measure". Analysts speculated that the arrest was connected with Mr Siad's past; the defence minister is a powerful Mogadishu warlord and a former member of Hizbul-Islam, an Islamic rebel group fighting Somalia's internationally-backed transitional government. At the beginning of 2009, Mr Siad defected to the government side and was appointed defence minister.
 

Uganda has about 2,500 soldiers serving in Mogadishu as part of the African Union's AMISOM peacekeeping mission to Somalia.