|
joinafrica features |
|
Al-Qaeda's
Leader in Iraq to Relocate to Ethiopia
 A
top US general has said al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
will try to relocate to the Horn of Africa if Iraq is stabilised.
Major-General Douglas Lute cited Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and
Ethiopia as likely "safe havens" for jihadists.
He said that "vast ungoverned spaces" of east Africa were likely
to appeal to Zarqawi's insurgents as operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan become difficult.
US troops based in Djibouti already aim to stop infiltration
from the Red Sea.
"There will come a time when Zarqawi will face too much
resistance in Iraq and will move on," Maj Gen Lute said.
He warned that Zarqawi's network remained determined to
demonstrate a "show of force" in the run-up to Iraq's
constitutional referendum and subsequent elections.
"He has to go down fighting," Maj Gen Lute said.
Wider concern
The warning is the latest in a series issued by the US that
al-Qaeda would try to reconvene in east Africa after its safe
haven in Afghanistan was removed in 2001, when a US-led attack
ousted the Taleban.
Since then the 900-strong US force has been
deployed to Djibouti in an effort to stop militants entering the
Horn of Africa at its tip.
US troops also train Eritrean and Ethiopian forces.
The BBC's Martin Plaut says US work in Somalia, where Islamic
fundamentalists already have a foothold, has been hampered by
the absence of an effective government.
The US recently warned that Africa's Sahel countries, including
Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad, could become a terrorist
haven, and has carried out troop exercises and training efforts
in the region.
Maj Gen Lute is operations head at US Central Command, and is
responsible for planning the way ahead over 12 to 18 months for
almost 140,000 US troops, 8,000 British soldiers and 15,000
other foreign troops currently in Iraq.
|
|