Qaeda 'leader' claims beheading of Sudan editor

KHARTOUM, Sep 12 (Reuters) A man purporting to lead an African branch of al Qaeda claimed responsibility today 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 Qaeda 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 organisation undertook this operation ... and they are now outside Sudan,'' said the statement, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

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 criticise 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 West Asia.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden lived in Sudan in the 1990s until Khartoum expelled him in 1996 under US and Saudi pressure.

REUTERS SAM BD1946