US denies Somali Islamist report 10 troops caught

MOGADISHU, Jan 18 (Reuters) Washington denied today a Somali Islamist Web site report that its retreating fighters had captured 10 US soldiers, one of whom died of malaria.

Qaadisiya.com, which has been the Islamists' official mouthpiece in recent months, also said ''mujahideen'' -- who retreated to the remote south after being ousted from Mogadishu -- planned to parade its US detainees in front of media.

But a US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: ''We don't have any US service members that have been captured or killed in southern Somalia.'' Rumours have swirled for days among Somalis that US soldiers may have entered the south around the time of Washington's air strike on January 8 aimed at al Qaeda suspects accused of hiding among fugitive Islamists.

But there has been no independent confirmation of that, and analysts doubt Washington, which had a disastrous peacekeeping mission to the chaotic Horn of Africa nation in the early 1990s, wants to be so directly engaged again.

''It is a surprise the Americans are not admitting some of their soldiers were killed and some captured in the southern tip of Somalia where they fought with mujahideen,'' said Qaadisiya.com, according to a translation from Somali.

One of 10 Americans taken prisoner died of malaria, it said, due to lack of medicines as roads were blocked by Ethiopian troops on one side ''and the enemy American war planes who would shoot at anything that moves on the other side''.

The other nine, being held near Ras Kamboni on the Indian Ocean coast near the Kenya border, would soon be shown to media with ''some important documents'' found on them, it added.

''If they thought that Islamists alone were dying, they are wrong. Now Americans are dying because of mosquito bites,'' the site said. ''The situation of the other nine soldiers is good, even though they worried about what their future will be and why no one is interested to free them.'' A range of Somali government and other sources consulted by Reuters on the Web site report said they could not confirm it, with various doubting its veracity.

The Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) ran most of south Somalia for six months until government forces, backed by Ethiopian tanks, jets and troops, drove them out in a two-week offensive over Christmas and the New Year.

The SICC's Qaadisiya.com site was run from Mogadishu until the Islamists' fall. It was not clear who maintains it now, though some Somalis said it was run from Kenya.

Reuters LL RS2156