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| Last Updated: Dec 14, 2011 - 11:39:16 AM |
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Panetta: Djibouti critical to US terror fight
13 Dec 13, 2011 - 12:27:01 AM
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CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti (AP) — U.S.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday that U.S. operations against
al-Qaida are now concentrating on key groups in Yemen, Somalia and
North Africa.
Panetta said efforts against the al-Qaida affiliates depend on American
partnerships with countries like Djibouti. The military base in this
tiny port nation in the Horn of Africa is the launch point for U.S.
drones used for intelligence, surveillance and, at times, strikes
against insurgents in terror hotspots.
Panetta told troops stationed at the base that he will visit Libya,
becoming the first Pentagon chief to travel to the embattled country,
which is emerging from an eight-month civil war.
He said he will also travel to Iraq in the coming days for a ceremony
that will shut down the U.S. military mission there after nearly nine
years at war.
As the U.S. winds down operations in Iraq and begins its methodical
withdrawal from Afghanistan, the U.S. military has increasingly focused
on Africa — particularly the north, where insurgents have found
sanctuary.
"It's fair to say that the United States is intent on going after
al-Qaida wherever they locate, and making sure they have no place to
hide," said Panetta, who is making his first trip to Djibouti.
A key U.S. ally in this region, Djibouti has the only U.S. base in
sub-Saharan Africa. It hosts the military's Combined Joint Task
Force-Horn of Africa.
U.S. officials have acknowledged that as the threat from core al-Qaida
leaders in Pakistan declines — largely due to U.S. strikes that have
killed insurgents or kept them on the run — affiliated groups in Africa
and Yemen have taken on more active and dangerous roles.
The worry is that militant groups — including al-Shabab in Somalia and
al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen — operate out of safe havens
in undergoverned spaces.
"Our goal is to make sure that wherever they go, we go after them and
make sure that they are not able to ever develop the kind of planning
that would involve attacks on our homeland," Panetta told reporters
traveling with him.
Militants based in Somalia and Yemen have been at the heart of a number
of deadly terror attacks in the region, and several near-misses in the
U.S.
The Somalia-based al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaida, unleashed
twin bombings in Kampala, Uganda, that killed 76 in 2010. The group is
particularly worrisome because it has recruited dozens of
Somali-Americans, particularly young men, to travel to Somalia and take
up the fight.
On Christmas Day 2009, a Nigerian man tried to blow up an airliner over
Detroit during a flight that originated from Lagos, Nigeria.
U.S. and European officials also worry that al-Qaida in the Islamic
Maghreb — which operates in the west and north of Africa — is working to
establish links with al-Shabab and the Nigerian group Boko Haram.
Panetta met with Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh as well as some
of the roughly 3,000 U.S. troops that are based here, conducting
counterterrorism, counter-piracy and humanitarian missions.
U.S. defense officials said Djibouti is planning to deploy some troops
to the Somalia mission, joining forces from Uganda and Burundi who are
working to push al-Shabab back, particularly from key areas around the
capital region.
Panetta's plan to visit Libya comes amid ongoing violence there,
including recent clashes between revolutionary fighters and national
army troops near Tripoli's airport.
Panetta said Libya reflects the ongoing changes in the region after the
Arab Spring, and said the U.S. wants to help Libyans move in the right
direction as the people take back their country. With military
assistance from the U.S. and NATO, Libyans ousted and later killed
longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi earlier this year.
Source: Associated Press
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