Paris AFP (in English) — 1309 GMT

Mogadishu — A Somali Islamic group claimed responsibility Wednesday (11 August) for a blast which killed four U.S. soldiers in an ambush at the weekend.

In a typed statement, the hitherto unknown Somali Islamic Salvation Movement (SISM) said the “SISM has so far carried out several operations aimed at eliminating yankees and their puppets, and managed to kill four devils of the U.S. yankees”.

The statement delivered to a Mogadishu hotel used by the foreign press condemned the United Nations operation on several counts, accusing the American contingent of carrying out “arbitrary killings.”

It said that Somalia was set to “fall into the hands of neocolonialism”, and stressed the “importance of Islamic struggle against the infidels and the pagans”.

The SISM said its aim was to “restore the Islamic law”, and that it was issuing a warning to Muslim countries which have provided troops for the UN operation in the east African country.

UNOSOM has accused the leading Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed of being responsible for setting the explosion which killed the four, but a spokesman for Aideed’s Somali National Alliance has denied this. Observers believed the SISM could be a front body aimed at deflecting reprisals.

The UN has already put a price on General Aideed’s head for his alleged responsibility in the death of 24 Pakistani peacekeepers in June.