Prime Minister said group of 70 Armed Forces personnel and experts will go to war-torn nation to provide support to AMISOM peacekeeping forces

Comments came days after Cameron pledged to send troops to Somalia

UK soldiers will be 'beheaded' and their corpses will be 'displayed online'

Spokesman said armed militants would welcome British troops with 'fire'

Somalia-based extremist group Al-Shabaab has vowed to behead British soldiers and parade their corpses on the Internet when they arrive in the war-torn country to assist with peacekeeping efforts.

In a chilling radio broadcast, group spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said that armed militants would welcome UK troops with bullets - and drag mutilated soldiers through Somalia's streets.

'We hope we shall see the beheaded bodies of whites,' Rage said, adding: 'We shall welcome British forces with fire and you will see their dead bodies displayed on the web pages.'

His comments came just days after Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to send hundreds of troops to East Africa to help counter Islamist militants and assist United Nations peacekeepers.

Warning: Somalia-based extremist group Al-Shabaab (pictured) has vowed to behead British soldiers and parade their corpses on the Internet when they arrive in the country to assist with peacekeeping efforts

A group of 70 Armed Forces personnel and experts will go to Somalia to provide logistical, medical and engineering support to African Union forces, which are fighting jihadis with Al-Shabaab.

Meanwhile, a second force of up to 300 will go to South Sudan, the world’s youngest country where a civil war has been raging for two years, according to the plans announced by Mr Cameron.

It would be the first time Britain has formally joined the international contingent backing the African Union's long-running efforts against Al-Shabaab, which is linked to Al-Qaeda.

In his radio broadcast on Tuesday, Rage responded to Mr Cameron's pledge by branding the UK 'an enemy to Muslims', and accusing the Western nation of trying to colonise Somalia.

A spokesman for the British High Commission in Nairobi, Kenya, declined to comment to Reuters.

On September 27, Mr Cameron defended his plans to send British troops to Somalia, insisting that joining peacekeeping operations would help bring ‘security and stability’ to the region.

He said this would, ultimately, make Britain safer.

Pledge: In a chilling radio broadcast, Al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said that militants would welcome UK troops with bullets. His comments came just days after Prime minister David Cameron (pictured today) pledged to send hundreds of troops to East Africa to help counter Islamist militants

Terror links: An armed Al-Shabaab militant attends a rally in support of the merger of the group with Al-Qaeda

He also claimed that helping resolve conflicts would mean ‘less migration’ to Europe.

Mr Cameron said Britain would take 'very great care' to ensure troops' 'safety and security'.

African peacekeeping forces drove Al-Shabaab out of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in 2011.

But since then, the extremist group has waged a series of gun and grenade attacks to try to overthrow the government and impose its strict version of sharia law.

In April, 148 people were murdered by masked Al-Shabaab terrorists who stormed a Kenyan university and shot and beheaded Christians in the worst attack in the country in 17 years.

The group raided the Garissa University College campus shortly after 5am local time, overwhelming guards and murdering people they suspected of being a Christian.

Fighting: AMISOM, the African Union's force in Somalia, has been battling Al-Shabaab alongside the Somali army, pushing the rebels into increasingly smaller pockets of territory. Above, members of the African Union's force in South Sudan - the world’s youngest country where a civil war has been raging for two years

Nearly 80 others were injured in the brutal attack, while 587 were led to safety.

Meanwhile, in 2013, at least 67 people were killed in a four-day siege at a shopping mall in Kenya.

Al-Shabaab later took responsibility for the Nairobi-based attack.

And on Wednesday, Islamic extremist rebels believed to belong to Al-Shabaab killed two men including the president's nephew in a drive-by shooting in Somalia's capital, a Somali official said.

We shall welcome British forces with fire and you will see their dead bodies displayed on the web pages Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, Al-Shabaab spokesman

Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for attack, claiming that they had killed a nephew of the president and another government official.

Captain Mohammed Hussein, a senior Somali police officer, confirmed to the Associated Press that the president's nephew was killed along with a lawyer.

He identified the president's nephew as Lisban Osman Ali and the lawyer as Abdiqadir Mohammed Yabarow.

The president's spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment.