U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer told journalists the three al-Qaeda suspects believed to be in Somalia “are of the highest, highest priority in term of capturing.”
She said U.S. policy around the world was to work with anyone willing to provide information that would help capture members of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist group.
“It is very clear that there are foreign terrorists in Somalia,” she said, adding that the U.S. has brought up the issue with the U.N.-backed transitional government in the country. “We are making the same call on the Islamic Courts Union.”
Militias loyal to the Islamic Courts Union have captured the capital, Mogadishu, and most of southern Somalia. The U.S. has accused some extremist elements of the union of harboring al-Qaeda terrorists.
Frazer said there were many suspected terrorists in Somalia, but the most wanted included three men under U.S. indictment for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. They include a Comorian, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Kenyan Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu Taha al-Sudani, a Sudanese.
“The best way to get America’s support to the Somali people in a way that doesn’t undermine our interests and their interests is for them to give up these foreign terrorists,” she said.
Frazer also welcomed plans for the leaders of the transitional government to meet with leaders from the union in Khartoum Thursday. She voiced unequivocal support for the government, which was formed in Kenya in 2004 after years of negotiations.
Source: AP, June 21, 2006
