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Somali pursuits a US 'right'
04/01/2007 14:16 - (SA)
Nairobi - The United States has a right to pursue Somalia's Islamists, which it believes have ties to international terror networks, the US embassy in Kenya said on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the US state department said the country has forces off the coast of Somalia and is working with other countries in the region to ensure that Islamists linked to terrorism are not able to flee the country.
"Counterterrorism is one of the US' goals in Somalia. We feel we have a right to pursue al-Qaeda terrorists wherever they are," said Robert Kerr, a counsellor for public affairs at the US embassy in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
The US has a fleet of boats around the Somali coast that move in from a Combined Joint Task Force base in Djibouti. The patrols often intercepted pirated ships before the rise of the Islamists, who lessened crime in the Horn of Africa country during their six-month rule based on Islamic (Sharia) law.
Washington had been concerned that the rise of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) in Somalia could turn the country into a refuge for al-Qaeda terrorists. Their leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, is on a US and United Nation terrorist list.
Fighters loyal to the UIC began fleeing their strongholds during a two-week military offensive by Ethiopian-backed government troops last month.
The US military had reportedly been providing training of Ethiopian troops along the border with Somalia. The United States in a statement last week backed Ethiopia's decision to launch military strikes.
Kenya this week sealed its border, sending helicopters and tanks to reinforce the frontier. Hundreds of Somali refugees, many of them women and children, were deported back to their home country after Kenyan officials stepped up their vigilance, fearing an influx of Islamist fighters.
Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi granted the fighters an amnesty, but did not include the group's leaders, who are said to have ties to al-Qaeda, in the truce. Their whereabouts are unclear, but are believed to be sheltered by villagers in the southern reaches of the country, near the Kenyan border.
European members of an International Contact Group on Somalia met in Belgium on Wednesday and opted against sending an EU peacekeeping force to the war-torn country, but pushed for an African Union mission instead.
The transitional government now controls most of Somalia's centre and south, including the capital Mogadishu. The international community has continued to support negotiations aimed at stabilizing the Horn of Africa nation.
The fate of the country, which fell into anarchy after the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre, hangs in the balance as Ethiopian troops could leave as early as in two weeks, potentially creating a security vacuum.
Sapa-dpa
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