U.S. vows to weed out al Qaeda from Africa
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) - The United States is committed to flushing out al Qaeda militants it believes are in the Horn of Africa, however long it takes, a U.S. army official said Friday.
Washington fears al Qaeda members may have fled to the Horn of Africa from Afghanistan after a U.S.-led coalition drove the Taliban regime from Kabul. U.S officials see countries like lawless Somalia as potential hiding places for militants.
"We will find and defeat the al Qaeda terrorist network which moved out of Afghanistan and are coming across the Gulf of Aden into the Horn of Africa," Maj. Gen. John Sattler, Commander of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, told a news conference in Addis Ababa.
"The Combined Joint Task Force is prepared for an extended war on terrorism," Sattler said. "We will press the fight at every turn, as long as it takes, against those who seek to spread hatred and fear, both in the Horn of Africa region and around the world, with the help of our coalition partners."
The force based in Djibouti began work in December, patrolling the seas off the Horn of Africa and hunting down any militant networks. The United States blames al Qaeda for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.
The Task Force's mission covers Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Yemen and Sudan. The region was thrust into the spotlight in November, when suicide bombers attacked an Israeli-owned hotel in the Kenyan resort of Mombasa.
Sattler is on a three-day visit to Ethiopia for talks with military officials on ways of strengthening cooperation.
02/21/03 11:26 ET
