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14 February 2007
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - The US Commander of the Joint Task Force for the Horn of Africa lauded its joint anti-terrorism activities with Ethiopia, whose troops recently defeated an Islamist movement in Somalia.
Rear Admiral Richard W. Hunt said Addis Ababa, whose military intervention received Washington's backing, was working closely with the United States in the implementation of anti-terrorism projects in the Horn of Africa region, state media said.
"The cooperation between the two nations will further strengthen. The impact in the region has been a positive one," Hunt said after talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in the capital Addis Ababa.
Hunt praised Ethiopia's defeat of the Somali Islamists late last year and added that Meles assured that he would withdraw troops "as soon as its mission is concluded efficiently."
The US has accused the Islamists of harbouring three suspected Al Qaeda operatives blame for the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as well as a 2002 attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya.
The operatives, Kenyans Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu Taha al-Sudani, a Sudanese alleged to be an explosives expert close to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, were not killed in subsequent US strikes in the lawless country.
Last week, the Pentagon said it was consulting African countries about its plan to establish a regional command center to oversee US military actions on the continent.
According to Ryan Henry, the principal deputy under secretary of defense, the objective of Africa Command will be "to reduce conflict, to improve the security environment, to defeat or preclude the development of terrorists or terrorist networks, and support in crisis response."
Current responsibility for Africa within the Pentagon is shared out among three regional commands.
Until now the continent has fallen mainly under the US European Command, which also has taken on new responsibilities in recent years with growing relations with Russia and the former Soviet republics.
Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, is responsible for the Horn of Africa, while Pacific Command has watch over Madagascar.
The new Africa Command, however, would not be responsible for Egypt, which will remain under the Central Command domain, Henry said.
The Pentagon intends to establish Africa Command by the third quarter of 2008. The location of its headquarters has not yet been decided.