The Foreign Office was last night investigating reports of British casualties in Somalia, amid claims that support and funding for an Islamic militant movement had come from Britain.
Following days of fierce fighting in the African country, the United States reportedly launched a series of air strikes against Islamic extremists it suspects of having links to the al-Qaida terror group.
Ethiopia's prime minister said yesterday tha
t many international terrorists had been killed, injured or captured in the fighting – including Britons.
Meanwhile, Somalia's deputy prime minister claimed that much of the funding for the Islamist militants was coming from Britain and that some of their fighters were British and American passport holders.
There was also condemnation yesterday from British-based Islamic groups of the US intervention in the conflict.
Ethiopian forces last month invaded Somalia, a largely Muslim country, to stop an Islamic movement ousting the weak, internationally recognised government from its lone stronghold in the west of the country.
Leaders of the Islamic movement have vowed to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war in Somalia.
There were reports at the weekend that British passport holders were involved in the fighting, which has claimed scores of lives.
The French newspaper Le Monde yesterday quoted Ethiopia's prime minister Meles Zenawi as saying that suspected terrorists from Britain were among those injured and captured.
"Many international terrorists are dead in Somalia," Mr Meles said.
"Photographs have been taken and passports from different countries have been collected. The Kenyans are holding Eritrean and Canadian passport holders. We have injured people coming from Yemen, Pakistan, Sudan, the United Kingdom."
The Foreign Office said it was investigating the claims. "We take these reports very seriously and will do everything we can to look into them," a spokeswoman said.
Somalia's deputy prime minister claimed yesterday that much of the funding for the Union of Islamic Courts (ICU) – which has taken control of large parts of central and southern Somalia during the past six months – was coming from Britain.
In an interview with More4 News, Hussein Mohammed Aideed said: "The ICU's main support was coming from London – paying cash to the ICU against the government."
The US military has conducted a series of air strikes on militants linked to al- Qaida in the last two days.
It claims that Somali Islamists sheltered al-Qaida operatives linked to the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa.
On Monday, AC-130 warplanes reportedly killed large numbers of Islamic extremists in Hayi and also on a remote island on the southern tip of Somalia suspected of being a terrorist training camp.
Yesterday morning, US helicopter gunships apparently attacked suspected terrorists hiding in Afmadow, 220 miles, south-west of the capital Mogadishu.
Witnesses claimed 31 civilians, including a newlywed couple, were killed by the two helicopters.
The US intervention was condemned yesterday by the Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain. Dr Imran Waheed said: "This murderous US air strike is a blatant act of aggression."
