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)