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| Africa Horn |
| Somali Al-Qaeda on the run, says US |
| 2007-01-27 |
| AL-QAEDA cell members and affiliated Islamic extremists are on the run and unable to regroup after US and Ethiopian attacks in Somalia, the top US official on Africa policy said overnight. Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer's remarks appeared to contradict an earlier assessment by the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, which warned that Islamist hardliners had escaped intact and could stage a comeback. Mr Frazer said on National Public Radio that Washington was working with Kenya and Ethiopia and ensuring that East African Al-Qaeda cell members and associated extremists were "not able to reconstitute themselves." "They are on the run, they had run towards the border with Kenya, and now they're trying to go back towards Mogadishu," Mr Frazer said. The US military this week carried out the second air strike in a month in southern Somalia, targeting suspected Al-Qaeda operatives. The Islamists, who fled before the arrival of government forces and their Ethiopian backers, restored a degree of order to Mogadishu after they crushed a collection of warlords in June who had been fighting in the capital for the past 16 years. In a new report overnight, the International Crisis Group said the ousting of the Islamists by a joint force of Ethiopian and interim government troops was a "historic opportunity for stabilisation and reconstruction" but warned that government claims to have crushed the Islamists were wishful thinking. "Elements of the Courts (Islamists), including the Shabaab militants and their Al-Qaeda associates, have survived largely intact and threaten guerrilla war," the Brussels-based organisation said. "To prevent the jihadis from staging a comeback, the TFG (transitional government) must restore stability and win public support across southern Somalia," where the Islamists had their stronghold, said the report. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 Curly toed slippersÂ…donÂ’t fail me now! |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2007-01-27 12:26 |
| #2 It's great strategy, too. |
| Posted by: John Murtha 2007-01-27 07:42 |
| #1 All that running is great cardio. |
| Posted by: Gloque Elmang4914 2007-01-27 01:20 |