US patrols off Somali coast point to expansion of campaign
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Your support makes all the difference.The prospect of the American-led coalition expanding its "war against terrorism" beyond Afghanistan increased yesterday with reports of US warships patrolling off Somalia.
The reports follow repeated threats by Washington to attack countries suspected of harbouring Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida network. It has also warned Iraq.
Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, indicated this week that Britain would back the US in strikes on other countries, jeopardising the Allied coalition. Germany and France are against expansion and have warned against an attack on Iraq. Mr Hoon has said he has seen no evidence linking Iraq directly with al-Qa'ida.
The Pentagon said yesterday that American and British ships were patrolling off East Africa to intercept Mr bin Laden if he tried to escape to Somalia Senior US officials have said they intend to carry out raids on al-Qa'ida cells even if Mr bin Laden is captured or killed.
A Pentagon unit, the foreign terrorist tracking task force, is co-ordinating the operations which have been dubbed "stiletto strikes". Yemen, Sudan and the Philippines are in the firing line, along with Somalia. Reconnaissance has been undertaken in Yemen and Somalia and special forces have been sent to the Philippines. Several hundred Ethiopian troops are said to have crossed into the Somali province of Puntland, an area US intelligence claims contains terrorist bases linked to Mr bin Laden.
But the regime of the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, is seen as the real target of US hawks. President George Bush has insisted that President Saddam allow arms inspectors back into Iraq or face the consequences. There have also been claims that one of the 11 September hijackers, Mohammed Atta, met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague.
The Conservative leader, Iain Duncan Smith, on a visit to Washington to be briefed by Vice-President Dick Cheney, has supported strikes against Iraq. Diplomatic sources say Washington may be trying to prepare Britain for strikes.
Mudhafar Amin, the Iraqi representative in London, said: "There is a real danger that the Americans will carry out attacks against Iraq because they have had a comparatively easy success in Afghanistan.
"We know that the European powers are advising against this, but we also know from Afghanistan and the problems with things like sending peace-keepers there that Washington will not take any notice if it doesn't want to." He said American threats were "crude provocation". Proposals to allow inspections, combined with a lifting of sanctions, were being studied by various countries, Mr Amin said, and the US was trying to destabilise that.
He denied Iraq was backed by al-Qa'ida and the Taliban. "They are Muslim fundamentalists and we are secular. Tariq Aziz is a Christian, for example, and bin Laden certainly does not like us."
The Somali President, Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, said Mr bin Laden would not find refuge in his country.
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