US aims to stop Islamic extremists fleeing Somalia

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON, Jan 3 (Reuters) - U.S. forces are deployed off the coast of Somalia to stop members of that country's ousted Islamist government with ties to al Qaeda and other extremists from fleeing, a State Department spokesman said on Wednesday.

"We would be concerned that no leaders who were members of the Islamic Courts which have ties to terrorist organizations including al Qaeda are allowed to flee and leave Somalia," spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"We of course have a presence off the coast of Somalia and Horn of Africa to make sure there are no escape routes by sea where these individuals could flee," McCormack said. He declined to provide details about the U.S. forces.

~anip~

McCormack did not name specific extremists, but U.S. officials said before the war the top layer of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) was controlled by a cell of al Qaeda operatives. The head of the council, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, is on U.N. and U.S. extremist lists.

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03414975.htm

[Posteritatis]

1. Haven't Ethiopia and Kenya already locked that barn door? (nt)

[strategery blunder]

2. By land, but not by sea. nt

[Kagemusha]

3. Probably a fairly big border to patrol.

Just saying..

[sofa king]

4. They have a huge fleet of small boats.

With total anarchy having reigned for well over a decade, one of the few ways to make a living there is with a small boat, with which one can fish, and smuggle essential goods, raid commerce, and transport illegal migrants at $50 a pop, mostly to Yemen and Kenya.