AP Interview: Algerian insurgents active

Bakersfield Californian ^ | 6/18/05 | Todd Pitman- AP

[NormsRevenge]

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) - Al-Qaida-linked Algerian insurgents are becoming more active in Africa's remote, ungoverned deserts, and increased cooperation among African nations will be key to averting future terror attacks, a top U.S. general said Saturday.

U.S. Maj. Gen. Thomas Csrnko said the No. 1 threat to the region was Algeria's Salafist Group for Call and Combat, an al-Qaida affiliated movement that loaded fighters onto a dozen trucks earlier this month and attacked an isolated Mauritanian army outpost near the Algerian and Mali borders.

The surprise assault left 15 Mauritanian soldiers and nine Salafists dead.

The attack was a clear sign "they've become more active," Csrnko told The Associated Press. "Whether or not they've gotten more financing, I don't know."

The Salafists are accused of kidnapping 32 European tourists in the Sahara in 2003 and of carrying out numerous attacks in Algeria itself.

Csrnko is the special forces commander for U.S. European Command, which oversees U.S. military activities in Europe and all of Africa, excluding the Horn.

The general said the key to fighting terrorists in Africa is stepping up communications between countries in the region. Though secure phone lines do exist in north and northwest Africa, they are mostly internal, U.S. officials say.

Csrnko said U.S. forces would aim to train with the same African units in the future with a view toward improving quick reaction forces, not regular armies.

"You're developing an internal and regional security response capability to disrupt bands of terrorists," Csrnko said. "They understand the necessity that for successful security in the region, they must cooperate, and that's an end-state we're trying to achieve."

Csrnko and other American officials are in West Africa for a two-week U.S.-led joint counterterrorism exercise called Flintlock, taking place June 6-26.

The exercises involve nine African nations - Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal - a vast area the U.S. is pouring more money and equipment into in a bid to keep terrorists at bay.

Africa's "ungoverned" spaces - particularly deserts where security forces are hard to come by - are the chief concern of American commanders fearful terrorists may seek refuge there.

Csrnko said Algerian Salafists were conducting supply and smuggling operations within the Sahara region, using well-established, centuries-old trade routes that forge paths through harsh deserts - particularly in impoverished Mauritania, Mali and Niger.

"We understand the strategic importance of Africa," Csrnko said. "If you take away sanctuary, mobility and support from terrorist organizations like has been done in Afghanistan, they're gonna move somewhere else."

[SteveMcKing]

Every African development effort has simply fed dictators who propagate civil wars - Muslim terrorists, however, are doing this on purpose.

(Like China, Africa is always 'set to explode' in some way, by modernizing or whatever. Now the big issue there is terrorism? We'll see.)

South Africa is the only real ally, which unfortunately is: 1) crime ridden 2) still socially caustic over past apartheid policy. Every sane South African goes to university so they can get the hell out.

[Wiz]

Salafist terrorist group active in Africa ping!