By Mustafa Haji Abdinur
Mogadishu - Somalia's powerful Islamic movement on Friday rejected as "baseless" United States allegations that its supreme leader had authorised suicide attacks in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia.
The Islamists, some of whom are suspected of links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, said the "baseless warning" from Washington was part of pro-Zionist, Israeli propaganda aimed at destabilising the Muslim world.
"We know that America never favours Islamic movements anywhere in the world and such statements are part of an incorrect Zionist-inherited ideology," said Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, the Islamists' deputy defense chief.
"Islam does not harm people," he said. "The warnings issued by the American embassy issued are baseless and we never attack neighbouring countries."
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"America misleads its people by giving out such baseless warnings but we will never falter because we stand ready to defend our religion and people from the enemy of Allah," said Robow.
Robow is one of several senior members of Somalia's Islamist movement who is widely suspected of having trained as a fighter in Afghanistan.
On Thursday, the US embassies in Nairobi and Addis Ababa warned of the threat of suicide attacks against "prominent" targets in Kenya and Ethiopia and urged Americans to use "extreme caution" in the two countries.
"These threats specifically mention the execution of suicide explosions in prominent landmarks within Kenya and Ethiopia," they said in notices sent to US citizens in the two countries.
Embassy officials said the warning was prompted by postings on Somali websites purported to come from Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the Islamists' supreme leader, in which he authorises suicide attacks in Kenya and Ethiopia.
Aweys, a hardline cleric designated a "terrorist" by the United States for alleged al-Qaeda ties, could not be reached for comment about the statements attributed to him.
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