Eric Schmitt
In aumento i combattenti islamici provenienti dall’Africa a nord e sud del Sahara, che si uniscono alla resistenza irachena e la finanziano, contro americani e forze del governo iracheno.
Rispetto all’appoggio fornito da Siria o Arabia Saudita quello proveniente dall’Africa è tuttavia limitato: ¼ dei 400 combattenti stranieri catturati in Irak, ¼ viene dall’Africa, secondo il comando militare europeo, che sorveglia operazioni militari nella maggior parte del continente africano.
Ufficiali dell’esercito e dell’intelligence americani ritengono che ampie regioni del Sahara, dalla Mauritania a ovest al Sudan a est, paesi tra i più poveri del mondo che hanno difficoltà a controllare le vaste regioni dell’interno, stiano divenendo aree scelte da gruppi terroristi, compresa Al-Qaeda, per reclutare forze.
Alcuni sono entrati nella rete di al-Zarqawi; un gruppo ristretto di veterani sta tornando nei paesi di origine, come Marocco e Algeria, e probabilmente userà le abilità acquisite nella guerriglia contro i rispettivi governi.
Tra i gruppi terroristici locali il gruppo Salafista in Algeria, che nel 2003 catturò 32 turisti europei; questo gruppo ha rivendicato un attacco a sorpresa contro un avamposto isolato dell’esercito della Mauritania.
Non tutti i combattenti africani in Irak appartengono a gruppo pre-costituiti di guerriglieri come i salafisti o a quello dei combattenti islamici del Marocco.
Il comando europeo ha fatto forti pressioni per allargare il programma da $6mn; in marzo l’amministrazione americana ha approvato la Trans-Sahara Counterterrorisme Iniziative, per 5 anni a partire dal 2007 con $100mn. l’anno.; verranno addestrati battaglioni di 500 soldati di nove paesi: Mali, Ciad, Mauritania, Niger e Algeria, in seguito anche Senegal, Nigeria, Tunisia e Marocco; 1000 soldati americani, tra cui 700 forze speciali addestreranno 3000 soldati africani, insegnando anche a coordinare tra loro piani e operazioni.
Con il programma “Pan Sahel iniziative” avviato due anni fa’, gli americani hanno iniziato ad addestrare ed equipaggiare sei compagnie di fanteria leggera di circa 150 soldati ognuna, di Mali, Mauritania, Ciad, Niger.
Il Pentagono sta prestando maggiore attenzione ad altre regioni dell’Africa: circa 1300 soldati americani hanno base nell’edificio che veniva utilizzato dalla Legione straniera francese a Djibuti per operazioni antiterrorismo nel Corno d’Africa. NYT 05-06-10
As Africans Join Iraqi Insurgency, U.S. Counters With Military Training in Their Lands
By ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON , June 9 – A growing number of Islamic militants from northern and sub-Saharan Africa are fighting American and Iraqi forces in Iraq, fueling the insurgency with foot soldiers and some financing, American military officials say.
About 25 percent of the nearly 400 foreign fighters captured in Iraq come from Africa, according to the military’s European Command, which oversees military operations in most of the African continent.
Some recruits have joined the network of the militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which has carried out many of the sophisticated attacks and suicide car-bombings that have killed hundreds of Iraqis in the past several weeks , the officials said.
A small vanguard of veterans are also returning home to countries like Morocco and Algeria, poised to use skills they learned on the battlefield in Iraq, from bomb making to battle planning, against their native governments , the officials said.
To combat the immediate threat and to prevent terrorists from gaining new safe havens in the region, the Bush administration is expanding a small military training program that has operated on a shoestring the past two years into a more ambitious program spending $100 million annually to provide airport security, money-handling controls, school construction and other assistance to nine African nations .
As part of this broader strategy, the United States on Monday began training exercises in Mali, Chad, Mauritania, Niger and Algeria. Four other countries, Senegal, Nigeria, Tunisia and Morocco, will also participate by the time the exercises finish in two weeks. About 1,000 American troops, including 700 Special Operations forces, will train 3,000 African soldiers in marksmanship, border patrol and airborne operations.
"For a change, we’re trying to get ahead of the power curve in a region that we believe is susceptible to use by terrorists," Theresa M. Whelan, the Pentagon’s top Africa policy official, said. "It’s a deterrent."
United States military and intelligence officials say vast swaths of the Sahara, from Mauritania in the west to Sudan in the east, which have been smuggling routes for centuries, are becoming areas of choice for terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda, which has quietly stepped up its recruiting efforts in the region.
The countries there are some of the poorest in the world and have scant resources to monitor their borders or patrol the large remote areas of their interiors, where drug smugglers, weapons traffickers and terrorists had established land routes after routes in the Mediterranean began to be patrolled more intensively.
"Al Qaeda is assessing local groups for franchising opportunities," said Maj. Gen. Richard P. Zahner, chief intelligence officer for the European Command, who assumes that post for the military headquarters in Iraq this summer. "I’m quite concerned about that."
Among the local terrorist groups is the Salafist Group in Algeria, which abducted 32 European tourists in early 2003.
On Tuesday, the Algerian group claimed responsibility for a surprise attack last Saturday against an isolated Mauritanian Army outpost that left 15 Mauritanians and 9 insurgents dead. The group said in a message posted on a Web site in Arabic that the assault was a direct response to the training exercises that were "put in place by the enemy of God, America, and its agents in the region," The Associated Press reported.
American military officers and defense officials, who spoke in authorized interviews but on the condition of anonymity , citing security considerations when they travel overseas, said the number of African militants and the funds they have provided for the fighting in Iraq – perhaps several hundred thousand dollars – are not large compared with support from countries like Syria or Saudi Arabia. "But it allows those elements to get in and be players," one officer said.
Not all northern African militants turning up in Iraq belong to a group like Salafist or the Moroccan Islamist Combatant Group. But the skills they learn and the connections they make with other insurgents there is making Iraq a training ground and networking hub for terrorists , these officials say.
"They’re getting to use those training skills, hone them and eventually go somewhere else and use them," one defense official said. "The bottom line is you’ve developed a new extremist. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture down the road."
The Pentagon is also paying more attention to other parts of Africa. About 1,300 American troops are based at a former French Foreign Legion compound in Djibouti to conduct counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa. Maj. Gen. Samuel T. Helland, the American commander, said his forces were using civil-affairs projects, not combat missions, "to isolate the terrorist from his support, which is the population."
American forces two years ago began training and equipping six light infantry companies of roughly 150 soldiers each from Mali, Mauritania, Chad and Niger in a program called the Pan Sahel Initiative. The Sahel straddles the southern edge of the Sahara. "It was barely a drop in the bucket given the nature of the problem we were dealing with," Ms. Whelan said.
The European Command lobbied hard to expand the $6 million program, and in March the administration approved the new effort, the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Initiative, with plans to finance it with $100 million a year for five years, beginning in 2007 , Ms. Whelan said.
Under the plan, the military will train battalions of 500 soldiers from the nine countries , and provide Toyota Land Cruisers, radios, uniforms, global-positioning devices and fuel trailers. American instructors would also teach the African militaries how to coordinate planning and operations with each other.
"They need the ability to support military teams, hundreds of miles away, with communications and logistics," said Rear Adm. Hamlin B. Tallent, the European Command operations director. "If they want to do maneuver operations, this is clearly a capability that doesn’t exist now."
In addition, Ms. Whelan said, the initiative calls for the Justice Department to help train the local police; for the Treasury Department to assist on developing financial controls; for Customs to help with border security, and for the Agency for International Development to finance school construction.
"This assistance will provide countries in northern Africa with an enhanced ability to interdict transnational terrorists and other criminal elements," said Representative Ed Royce, a California Republican who heads the House International Relations terrorism subcommitttee.
Thom Shanker contributed reporting from Washington for this article.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times