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Algiers,
November 28, 2009 - The United States will persevere with its policy of
supporting Somalia's fragile government because restoring security there
will take time, the top U.S. military commander for Africa said on
Wednesday.
The U.S. military has been providing weapons and training to forces
loyal to Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, but the government
still only controls a few blocks of the capital with the rest of the
country in the hands of Islamist rebels.
"What's going on in Somalia did not just get that way. It won't correct
itself overnight either," General William E. Ward, commander of the U.S.
military's Africa Command, told reporters during a visit to Algeria.
"And so the current policy, that has international support, not just
from the United States, to reinforce, to help the transitional federal
government, and be supportive of the African Union mission to Somalia is
where we ... also see our big contribution," he said.
The al Shabaab militant group, who Washington says is al Qaeda's proxy
in Somalia, has been waging a two-and-a-half year insurgency against the
central government to impose its harsh version of Sharia law throughout
the country.
Troops from the African Union are protecting government sites in
Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.
Western security agencies say Somalia has become a safe haven for
militants who use it to plot attacks on Western targets, and also a
bolt-hole for pirates who have been hijacking ships in the Indian Ocean.
Ward was in the Algerian capital for meetings with officials that
focused on the threat from violent extremism in another part of Africa,
around the Sahara desert.
He said the U.S. military would continue to provide counter-terrorism
training to Sahara region governments but that there were no plans for
U.S. forces to take part directly in operations against insurgents.
Diplomats say al Qaeda-linked rebels who have been fighting the Algerian
government have in the past few years shifted some of their activities
south into the Sahara, staging attacks in countries including Mali and
Mauritania. (Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Victoria Main).
Source: Reuters, Nov 25, 2009
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