By Daria Sito-Sucic

SARAJEVO, April 11 (Reuters) - Bosnia on Wednesday revoked the citizenships of hundreds of Muslim volunteers who came to fight in its 1992-95 war, a move seen as part of an anti-terrorism drive requested by its ally the United States.

The citizenships had been awarded to foreigners who fought alongside Bosnian Muslims against Bosnian Croats and Serbs. Washington had called for them to be deported during the late 1990s and again after the Sept. 11 attacks. "Of the 367 who were stripped of Bosnian citizenship, most come from Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Tunisia, Sudan and Russia," Justice Minister Barisa Colak told a news conference.

He said a state commission found that their citizenships were illegally issued and would be revoked immediately. All would be able to appeal the ruling before facing deportation.

Colak did not say what criteria had not been met in the citizenship process, or whether the men were suspected of links to Islamic extremists, as local media had speculated.

A further 349 men had passed the review over the past year, Colak said, adding that the commission would need another year to examine all the cases.

Most of the volunteers who stayed in Bosnia after the war married local women, and many now live in strict Islamic communities in remote rural areas.

They are viewed with suspicion by Bosnians of all faiths and are seen by some as fanatics who want to impose strict religious practices on the traditionally tolerant Bosnian Muslims.

Human rights activists and associations of war veterans say the government decision violates the rights of the former soldiers, who will now be separated from their Bosnian families and may even end up in prison in their countries of origin.

Serif Patkovic, a former army commander from the central town of Zenica, now home to some 60 percent of the former fighters, said the decision was political.

"These people have won honours for their participation in the war and we shall defend them with all legal means," Patkovic told Reuters. "Some of them are invalids, they have wives and children to support here."

He said the state court had already overruled one case of revoked citizenship and appeals in other cases were underway.

Syrian-born Aiman Awad, chairman of the Ensaria association of naturalised citizens, criticised the process.

"I fulfilled all conditions for the citizenship," said Awad, who had lived in the region since 1982. "They want to revoke it only because I was a member of El Mujaheed brigade," he added, referring to a notorious army unit of Islamic fighters.

(Editing by Ellie Tzortzi and Paul Hughes; RM: Sarajevo Newsroom; +387 33 295 484))

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