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Posted on 03/22/2004 9:33:55 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
TIMBUKTU, Mali (AP) - On the Green Berets' signal, the 120 Malian troops sprang across a thorn-covered sand dune and stormed a mock enemy camp, pouring assault rifle fire into human-shaped silhouettes and an old truck cab. It was part of the U.S.-led war on terror - an effort to head off any chance that the vast and lawless desert of this African nation might become the next Afghanistan. But the start of Thursday's live-fire exercise was briefly delayed: Two donkeys wandered into the firing zone, and a Malian soldier ran out to shoo them away. "Tell him to come back!" cried one Green Beret to a Malian officer. While the action was fake, U.S. and Malian officials say the threat is real - that Islamic militants believed allied to al-Qaida could take root in the Sahel, the poor and sparsely populated southern fringe of the Sahara Desert. U.S. forces are providing training, gear, and, Mali commanders told The Associated Press, spy-satellite intelligence. The Green Berets are here under the U.S. Pan-Sahel Initiative, which aims to boost the military capabilities of Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad in the thinly guarded tract of desert they share. The enemy in this case is chiefly the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, or GSPC, waging an Islamic insurgency in Algeria to the north. An unknown number of Salafists have been in the region in recent months, U.S. and Malian officials say, surviving on water from scattered wells and food brought in on old trading and smuggling routes. In December, U.S. spy satellites spotted what was believed to be a group of about 100 Salafist fighters crossing into Mali in 20 Toyota pickups, and the intelligence was shared with Mali, said Lt. Col. Younoussa Maiga, top military official for the Texas-sized Timbuktu region. "They're very fast and the country is vast," Maiga said of the Salafists. "But our friends gave us the information about those people" and Malian troops forced them over the border to Niger in January. He did not say whether any shots were fired. U.S. forces were not involved in the action, said Lt. Col. M.J. Jadick, a U.S. Special Forces spokeswoman. U.S. officials refused comment on intelligence-sharing, saying it could jeopardize future operations. "The GSPC is not in the league of al-Qaida - but they're not very far below that," Brig. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, in Stuttgart, Germany, told The Associated Press. His U.S. European Central Command oversees U.S. military operations in the region. "The Pan-Sahel (is) a potential safe haven for terrorists," Lute said. The Salafist group hasn't been accused of involvement in any terrorism outside Africa, but it was blamed in the kidnapping of 32 European tourists in the Sahara last year. Fourteen hostages were freed in an Algerian commando raid, while 17 who had been taken from Algeria to Mali were released for ransom in August. One died of heat stroke. The Green Berets arrived in November to train soldiers stationed near Timbuktu, an ancient city of Muslim scholarship of furnace-like heat where camels roam boulevards of sand. The Americans have taught their Malian counterparts flanking maneuvers, ambush techniques, shooting skills, human-rights awareness and safety measures. Some $3.5 million - half the amount earmarked for the four-country, State Department-funded program - went on 39 sturdy Toyota troop transport pickups, plus high-tech communications and navigation gear, desert camouflage uniforms with body armor, but no lethal weaponry, the Americans say. Mali is one of the world's poorest nations, however, and the U.S. trainers acknowledge the help isn't enough. "Right now, the average soldier doesn't get to fire enough live ammunition," said a Green Beret detachment commander, as Malians rattled off rounds from battered AK-47s with dented banana-clip cartridges. "If they had more money, they'd have more time behind their guns," he said, speaking anonymously under rules for deployed Special Forces. The U.S. has sent other aid to the region outside the Pan-Sahel Initiative. This month, two U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo planes delivered 19 tons of medical supplies, blankets and food to Chad after its troops battled Salafist fighters and killed 43 of them. The U.S. military says the Sahel could accommodate al-Qaida-style camps similar to those in Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden based himself. However, U.S. Ambassador Vicki Huddleston told The Associated Press by telephone from the capital, Bamako, that Islamic terrorists aren't likely to find much support in Mali. Most Muslims in West Africa follow a more tolerant version of Islam than what was practiced in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime that hosted al-Qaida. Mali is "probably the only Muslim country in Africa that's been fully supportive of the war on terrorism," Huddleston said. After Thursday's mock ambush, the Malian troops stood in formation and enjoyed a Green Beret-supplied treat of cold soft drinks and Swisher Sweet cigars. The Special Forces chief commended them on their hard work over the past weeks, and some of the Malian trainees shouted out a few freshly learned English words: "Yes! Now! Shoot the enemy!" --
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Excerpted from above link:
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Mauritania, where the entire country is off the beaten track, is three quarters desert or near desert and the level of desertification is growing. As a result it is the world's second least populous country (Greenland is number one). When you travel there you will see towns half-blanketed in sand, nomads sipping tea under colorful tents, and vast desert plateaus that resemble the moon. Even people who have lived in this 'god forsaken place' and would never do so again agree that it's a truly exotic and unforgettable place to visit. Or so my Lonely Planet guide book says. But a traveler's experiences seldom match any guide book.
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"In the Sahara all wildlife is activated by the never ending struggle to obtain and retain water. All plants and animals have evolved ingenious methods for maintaining adequate water supplies. For example, the addux antelope gets all the moisture it requires from the scattered vegetation it feeds on - it never drinks."
Camels are the very epitome of desert adaptation. "They have very fat toes that provide flotation for walking on sand. Special blood vessels at the base of the brain keep it at a tolerable temperature even while the rest of the body rises as high as 45 C. When a camel becomes dehydrated, it adjusts the volume of the vascular system to reduce the load on its heart. Kidney filtration is also reduced 20%. Thus, a camel without water will lose only a thousandth of its body weight through daily urination. It hardly sweats at all. For contrast, a man can sweat up to three liters an hour walking in the desert which can amount to over 10% of body weight in a day, leading rapidly to circulatory collapse and death. A camel's stored body fat can keep it fed for up to six months (if it doesn't have to work). A camel can also withstand up to 1.8% salt in water, a fatal concentration for man. Perhaps the ultimate desert adaptation a camel has is its limited ability to combine hydrogen with the oxygen it breathes to produce water."
The Camel is an incredible animal!
Thanks, Ernest!
TIMBUKTU, Mali - On the Green Berets' signal, the 120 Malian troops sprang across a thorn-covered sand dune and stormed a mock enemy camp, pouring assault rifle fire into human-shaped silhouettes and an old truck cab.
It was part of the U.S.-led war on terror - an effort to head off any chance that the vast and lawless desert of this African nation might become the next Afghanistan.
.....After Thursday's mock ambush, the Malian troops stood in formation and enjoyed a Green Beret-supplied treat of cold soft drinks and Swisher Sweet cigars.
The Special Forces chief commended them on their hard work over the past weeks, and some of the Malian trainees shouted out a few freshly learned English words: "Yes! Now! Shoot the enemy!"
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NON-UN-ilateral, ping!
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