By REEM KHALIFA
Associated Press
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) -- A prosecutor in Bahrain says four American journalists have been charged with illegally assembling with the intent to commit a crime.
The prosecutor's statement says the four Americans were released on Tuesday afternoon. It wasn't immediately clear if they could leave the island nation off the coast of Saudi Arabia.
Bahrain police said they detained the four Americans on Sunday for providing "false information that they were tourists" and also alleged that one took part in an attack on Bahraini officers.
A friend of one of the journalists, freelancer Anna Therese Day of Boise, Idaho, has said the journalists were simply doing their job and denied they took part in any "illegal behavior."
Bahrain requires international journalists to obtain special media visas before entering to work. Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.
