MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The U.S. Department of Transportation says an airline didn't discriminate against six imams when it removed them from a flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in 2006.

The department's assistant general counsel, Samuel Podberesky, informed the Council on American-Islamic Relations of the department's conclusion in a Jan. 14 letter.

However, the department did fault US Airways for refusing to book the men on another flight after the FBI cleared them.

The letter is among several exhibits entered last week in a lawsuit the imams filed against the airline and the airport in federal court in Minneapolis. The trial is scheduled for August.

The men claim they were discriminated against because they appeared Middle Eastern and some of them prayed before boarding the flight.

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Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http://www.twincities.com

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