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The US battles al-Qaeda in North Africa
It's a sweltering morning in Chad's scrub-brush desert. A herd of goats grazes on tufts of green. Round huts bake in the strengthening sun. Suddenly the goats scatter as gunfire fills the air. Chadian soldiers behind a row of machine guns unload on their target: a giant berm standing in for Al Qaeda. Villagers turn as a batallion of Chadian Army troops swoops in from the right. The thap-thap of their AK-47s joins the chorus as shots pound the dirt mound. And 23 US Marines look on.For six weeks they've been teaching 168 Chadian soldiers counterterrorism basics - surprise attacks, border patrolling, intelligence gathering, and more. This is the final exam. "Lookin' good," says Maj. Paul Baker, the mission commander. The training here in remote Chad is just one sign of how the US military is engaging Africa in the global terror war as never before. There are, for instance, joint US naval exercises with Nigeria this month. There are reported antiterror patrols along the Kenya-Somalia border. And there's the new expansion of the Chad program from a four-nation, $7 million project to a nine-country plan with an expected budget of up to $125 million. It aims to prevent terrorists from roaming in and around the Sahara desert. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-09-17 |
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