A man purporting to lead an African branch of al-Qaida claimed
responsibility Tuesday for the beheading of a Sudanese newspaper
editor who was found dead last week.
The man, in a statement distributed to Sudanese newspapers,
called editor Mohamed Taha a "dog of dogs from the ruling party",
and accused him of insulting the prophet Mohammad.
The statement was signed by Abu Hafs al-Sudani, who said he was the
leader of al-Qaida in Sudan and Africa.
Taha, an ally of the government who was himself an Islamist, was
reported kidnapped from outside his home in the capital Khartoum a
week ago, and was found dead last Wednesday.
"Three individuals from this organization undertook this
operation ... and they are now outside Sudan," said the
statement.
Taha's killing heightened political tensions in Khartoum as the
government headed on a collision course with the international
community over its rejection of a UN Security Council resolution to
deploy more than 20,000 troops and police to war-ravaged
Darfur.
Taha had drawn protests from Islamic groups last year by
reprinting a series of articles questioning the roots of the
Prophet Mohammad. Colleagues say Taha had also begun to criticize
the government's policy on Darfur and recent price rises to fill a
budget gap.
Mainly Muslim Sudan is under sharia Islamic law in the north,
but while it has suffered multiple regional civil wars, it has not
seen the extremist violence that has surfaced elsewhere in the
Middle East.
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden lived in Sudan in the 1990s
until Khartoum expelled him in 1996 under US and Saudi
pressure.
Sudanese politicians cast doubt on the claim, which would be the
first act by Al-Qaida in Africa's largest country. Bin Laden and
his deputy have both called for their followers to take up arms in
Sudan's violent Darfur forces if UN forces deploy there.
"If the statement is true I believe the name of Al-Qaida is
being used to achieve other purposes," said Yasser Arman, a senior
member of the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation
Movement. "Mohamed Taha himself wasn't propagating against
Al-Qaida."
Mubarak al-Fadil, leader of the opposition Umma breakaway party,
said the statement aimed to deflect attention away from what was a
home-grown operation.
(China Daily September 13, 2006)
