The US does not plan to send troops into Yemen or Somalia as those countries struggle to contain Islamic militants, US President Barack Obama said in remarks published on Sunday.
“I have no intention of sending US boots on the ground in these regions,” Obama told People magazine, referring to Yemen and Somalia.
“I have every intention of working with our international partners in lawless areas around the globe to make sure that we’re keeping the American people safe,” a transcript provided by the magazine quoted Obama as saying.
Obama has said al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen, appears to have trained, equipped and directed the Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a US airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day, using explosives sewn into his underwear.
Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-inspired insurgency, has seized large areas of south and central Somalia, the Horn of Africa nation situated across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen, which is located at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.
“We’ve known throughout this year that al-Qaeda in Yemen has become a more serious problem. And, as a consequence, we have partnered with the Yemeni government to go after those terrorist training camps and cells there in a much more deliberate and sustained fashion,” Obama said. “The same is true in Somalia, another country where there are large chunks that are not fully under government control and al-Qaeda is trying to take advantage of them.”
The US already has large contingents of ground forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
US officials have said they were looking at ways to expand military and intelligence cooperation with Yemen, the poorest Arab state, to root out al-Qaeda leadership in the country.
‘EYE FOR AN EYE’: Two of the men were shot by a male relative of the victims, whose families turned down the opportunity to offer them amnesty, the Supreme Court said Four men were yesterday publicly executed in Afghanistan, the Supreme Court said, the highest number of executions to be carried out in one day since the Taliban’s return to power. The executions in three separate provinces brought to 10 the number of men publicly put to death since 2021, according to an Agence France-Presse tally. Public executions were common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001, with most of them carried out publicly in sports stadiums. Two men were shot around six or seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the center
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
The US will help bolster the Philippines’ arsenal and step up joint military exercises, Manila’s defense chief said, as tensions between Washington and China escalate. The longtime US ally is expecting a sustained US$500 million in annual defense funding from Washington through 2029 to boost its military capabilities and deter China’s “aggression” in the region, Philippine Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro said in an interview in Manila on Thursday. “It is a no-brainer for anybody, because of the aggressive behavior of China,” Teodoro said on close military ties with the US under President Donald Trump. “The efforts for deterrence, for joint resilience
RSS