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U.S. Officers in Somalia as War Expands
MOGADISHU, Dec. 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Several U.S. officials visited the Somali town of Baidoa at the weekend and met local authorities, humanitarian and militia sources said Tuesday, as speculation mounted over U.S. intentions to extend the war on terrorism to the Horn of Africa nation, news agencies reported.
"I can confirm that 10 U.S. plain clothed officers flew in and out of Baidoa [on Sunday], met with local authorities, but not anyone from the international aid community, and flew out again," said a humanitarian aid worker in Nairobi, who asked not to be named.
Another aid worker told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that two Ethiopian soldiers went to Baidoa on Sunday by car to meet with the Americans and local authorities.
Baidoa, which lies about 155 miles northwest of Mogadishu, is controlled by the Rahanwein Resistance Army (RRA), an armed group that with Ethiopia's backing is opposed to the Transitional National Government (TNG) in Mogadishu.
Low-ranking RRA members confirmed the visit of U.S. officers, but put their number at five and said uniformed soldiers accompanied them from Ethiopia.
"The Americans and the Ethiopians went to the airport as soon as they arrived by car from Ethiopia," said one RRA member.
The delegation visited the town for a few hours before returning to Ethiopia, a country the U.S. sees as a valuable ally in its war against terrorism.
But top leaders of the RRA denied the visit took place.
"It is not true American military or Ethiopians were here but we welcome them in Baidoa as part of their mission to combat terrorism," Mohamed Aden Qalinle, a member of RRA's executive council and the governor in Baidoa told AFP.
On Monday, Qalinle told AFP that the RRA had become aware of local Islamic groups with links with international terrorists, a possibility denied by Somalia's transitional Prime Minister Hassan Abshir Farah.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Walter H. Kansteiner, III, declared the presence of such groups on Thursday last week in Nairobi, when he told reporters that al-Itihaad, an organization based in Somalia, had links to al-Qaeda.
Kansteiner also suggested some members of the TNG had similar connections but insisted that the U.S. was still in the process of gathering information about Somalia.
"The tone in Washington specifically on Somalia is 'we've gotta get smarter. We've got to learn more, know more, find out more,'" he said. "We do have a naval presence [in the area]…There is coalition ships in the area."
But Prime Minister Farah, whose fledgling TNG controls only part of the country, insisted Tuesday that there were no terrorists in his state and urged the outside world not to attack.
"For sure there are no terrorist camps in Somalia, and attacks on Somalia would not be justified," Farah told legislators in the interim parliament two days after the reports of the U.S. visit came out.
The prime minister went on to criticize the outside world for paying too much attention to forces opposed to his government, such as the RRA.
But the RRA official said his group would offer bases and troops in the U.S. fight against terrorism.
"RRA is not only offering bases for military purposes but would contribute fighters that could help in combating terrorism," said Qalinle.
"Dozens of Transitional National Assembly [TNA] members are part of religious groups that are associated with international terrorist organizations. The transitional government founded last year by the TNA in Djibouti is a nest of religious extremists," said Qalinle.
Qalinle rejected suggestions that his invitation was a cynical ploy to draw Ethiopian military support for the RRA's aims in the guise of fighting international terrorism.
"Ethiopia played a major part in the search for peace in Somalia. Critics can say what they want but the truth is that RRA is part of the international coalition that fights terrorism. Ethiopian and Somali security are interdependent," he said.
The TNG and its supporters hold the opposite view, accusing Ethiopia of exaggerating the threat posed by groups in Somalia, especially al-Itihaad.
Meanwhile, against this backdrop of widespread hints about widening the war to Iraq and Somalia, Britain has expressed caution about spreading the military campaign, and has stated several times that it sees no evidence directly linking Baghdad to the September 11 attacks.
Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, the British chief of defense staff, acknowledged for the first time that Britain and the United States were at odds over the future of the U.S.-led campaign.
If British troops were to join their U.S. counterparts in such action, Boyce warned, it could result in "prosecuting operations that we may find contradict national policy."
Military experts tend to side with Boyce.
"Some elements of the forces are stretched, perhaps overstretched," agreed William Hopkinson, an associate of the Royal United Services Institute, a military think-tank in London.
"Armed forces are there to be used as a tool of government policy," he told AFP. "They will always be stretched because ministers will want to use them to the full."
At a press conference in London, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday after meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair that the U.S. will consult with its allies before extending the campaign against terrorism beyond Afghanistan.
"Obviously we would consult with our coalition partners as we move forward," he said. "That is a campaign that we are allied to."
Powell said that U.S. President George W. Bush had not yet taken any decisions on the direction of "phase two" of the war against terrorism after the campaign in Afghanistan.
However, he emphasized that chief terror suspect Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network had to be destroyed wherever it operated.
"We won't be finished with our work until all of those cells are ripped up," he said. "We cannot rest until we have ripped up al-Qaeda; every cell, wherever it is located around the world."
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