4 captured on suspicion of involvement in beheading American

Four people were detained on suspicion of involvement in beheading American merchant Nicholas

Berg, the US military said on Friday.

Two of the four have been released after interrogation, US military senior spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told a Baghdad press conference.

Kimmitt said the four were captured during a coalition raid in Baghdad. "Two personnel were released and the other two are still being questioned," he said.

He said it remained unclear to which group the suspects belong to or if they were all innocent, but confirmed that "some intelligence would suggest they have knowledge, perhaps some culpability." Earlier, reports said the Iraqi police arrested four former members of Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen Militia in Salahad in province north of Baghdad last week, but it was not known if the suspects were the same group Kimmitt referred to.

Berg went missing after he left his hotel in Baghdad on April 10and his body was found over a bridge in western Baghdad on May 8.A

group claiming to be affiliated to the al Qaida terror organization then broadcast a video on its website, showing five masked armed men reading Holy Koran and decapitating Berg.The group claimed that the killing was in revenge for US abuse of prisoners in Iraq.

Source: Xinhua