Several British terror suspects have been captured during the fighting in Somalia, it was claimed yesterday.

At least seven Britons are said to have been picked up as they fled with fighters from the Islamic movement when they were forced out of the capital, Mogadishu. The men, all carrying British passports and including one said to have been badly wounded, are reportedly being held by Ethiopian troops.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said last night that it was still waiting to check the identities of the men and establish what the Ethiopian authorities intend to do with them.

The fear is that they could be handed over to American forces and some then taken to Guantanamo Bay or other US prison camps if they are thought to have strong links with al-Qaeda. The British authorities are expected to ask for the men to be deported to Britain, where they can be prosecuted under new terror laws if there is any evidence of their association with al-Qaeda or taking part in terror operations abroad.

Last week, the voice of al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was posted on a website used by Islamic militants encouraging sympathisers from the West to join a campaign of suicide bombings and guerrilla warfare in Somalia.

British officials say that they will also investigate claims yesterday from Ethiopia’s rulers that Somali families living in Britain have been funding the Islamist militia.

The role of the British fighters was disclosed yesterday by Meles Zenawi, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, whose troops led the attacks that routed the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). The UIC denies that it has links with al-Qaeda.

Mr Meles said that the Britons were found among units of the Islamic militia as well as Canadians and other Westerners in what he described as an “international brigade”.

The Foreign Office said: “We take these reports very seriously and will do everything we can to look into them.”

A spokesman said: “We are in constant touch with the Ethiopian and Somalian governments, but we have not yet been given any documentation or the names of those allegedly involved.”

Mr Meles told Le Monde, the French newspaper, that “many international terrorists are dead in Somalia”. He said:

“Photographs have been taken and passports from different countries have been collected. We have injured people coming from Yemen, Pakistan, Sudan and the United Kingdom.”

Hussein Mohammad Adeed, his deputy, also claimed that Britons were among those killed, but he gave neither names nor the exact number who died. He refused to reveal whether any of the Britons had been caught up in the US air attacks over the past two days.

Mr Hussein said that the Britons were captured while they were trying to flee through territory controlled by al-Qaeda sympathisers. The captured Britons were all “al-Qaeda indoctrinated”.

Security sources in East Africa told The Times that the Ethiopians were claiming to be holding seven British passport-holders. All the men are understood to have joint UK/Somali nationality. The problem for the British authorities is that, because of the violence, they do not have any diplomatic presence in Somalia.

Mr Hussein did not give any estimate of how many Britons joined up with the UIC, nor how many British passport-holders he believed were still being sheltered in what he claimed were al-Qaeda camps bordering Kenya and on small islands. He said that the search for British and other Western militants would continue.

There are claims that one of the Britons was taken from a hospital that was raided by Ethiopian troops.

A Western aid worker, who did not want to be named, said that the Ethiopians forced their way into the hospital in Dinsoor and demanded that staff hand over all the files and documents belonging to “international patients”.

The aid worker claimed that the troops removed a number of injured foreigners, but he did not know the nationalities.

In an interview with More4 News, Mr Hussein identified Britain as a “major source of funding for the Islamic militants”.

He said that his Government “wants to open negotiations with Somali refugees — particularly in London”, who, he claims, are the main channel of funding for the UIC.

A recent report by a United Nations monitoring group said in November that “in recent months fundraising by the Somali diaspora in the UK has resulted in donations through the hawala [banking] system of an estimated $1.1 million”.

The report added that another $300,000 (£150,000) came from Somali families in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.

To Britain, however, the movement of militants is of far greater concern than the flow of cash, which Treasury officials suggested last night was not as important to the Islamic movement in Somalia as the Ethiopian officials claimed.

British security authorities have been trying to keep a watch on the handful of British jihadists of Somali and East African backgrounds who have been smuggled into terror training camps in the jungles and swamps along the border with Kenya. Western agents have been unable to infiltrate these networks.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
• Indian Army spends10m rupees on golf buggies
• Brüno toned down for 15 rating