Tag Archives: Africa Command

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Seasoned combat leader takes over Africa Command

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One of the American military’s most seasoned combat leaders took charge Friday of U.S. Africa Command, whose No. 1 mission is to work with allies to neutralize the continent’s widening web of Islamic extremist groups, including those affiliated with al-Qaida.

Army Gen. David M. Rodriguez took over for Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, who is retiring after 39 years in uniform, including two years as an enlisted 82nd Airborne paratrooper.

Rodriguez served two tours in Iraq and two in Afghanistan, including as the No. 2 commander of coalition forces during the 2010 U.S. troop surge. He is a member of a high-achiever West Point class of 1976 that includes the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Ray Odierno.

Ham and Rodriguez made the switch at a ceremony presided over by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, at a hotel near Africa Command‘s Stuttgart headquarters.

Dempsey called Rodriguez well-suited to lead Africa Command, calling him “smart and decisive.”

Notable for his absence was Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. He sent two letters — one read for him at a retirement ceremony for Ham and another at the formal change-of-command ceremony. Dempsey said Hagel had been “held” in Washington on other business.

Since its creation in 2007, Africa Command has grown from a relative backwater to arguably one of the most important commands in the U.S. military establishment. That is largely due to rising concern about Islamic extremists in the region, including a group known as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which gained strength following the March 2012 coup d’etat in Mali.

Other extremist groups of particular concern to the U.S. are Boko Haram in Nigeria, and al-Shabaab in Somalia.

Africa Command‘s area of responsibility covers the entire African continent minus Egypt.

As the Africa Command chief, Ham managed the U.S. portion of a 2011 coalition campaign to establish a no-fly zone over Libya in support of rebels whose uprising led to the violent overthrow of long-time strongman Moammar Ghadafi. A low point for Ham was the terrorist attack on U.S. government compounds in the Libyan city of Benghazi last September that killed our Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

A U.S. government official said Thursday that extremist and …read more

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Officials: General fired over alcohol, sex charges

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Defense officials say an Army major general with the U.S. Africa Command has been relieved of his post in connection with alcohol and sexual misconduct charges. He has appealed the dismissal to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

Officials say Maj. Gen. Ralph Baker, commander of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, was fired from his command last Thursday by Gen. Carter Ham, head of U.S. Africa Command, after an administrative review. Baker took over the task force, based in Djibouti, last May.

The allegations against Baker involve harassment and inappropriate contact. He has returned to Washington and is temporarily serving as a special assistant to the vice chief of the Army. Officials weren’t authorized to talk publicly about the case so spoke on condition of anonymity.

…read more

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US eyes anti-piracy effort along west Africa coast

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The U.S. and some of its allies are considering plans to increase anti-piracy operations along Africa‘s west coast, spurred on by concerns that money from the attacks is funding a Nigerian-based insurgent group that is linked to one of al-Qaida’s most dangerous affiliates.

Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has escalated over the past year, and senior U.S. defense and counter-piracy officials say allied leaders are weighing whether beefed up enforcement efforts that worked against pirates off the Somalia coast might also be needed in the waters off Nigeria.

There has been growing coordination between Nigeria-based Boko Haram and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which was linked to the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last September that killed four Americans, including the ambassador. Military leaders say AQIM has become the wealthiest al-Qaida offshoot and an increasing terrorist threat to the region.

It has long been difficult to track whether there are terrorist ties to piracy in the waters off Africa. But officials are worried that even if Boko Haram insurgents aren’t directly involved in the attacks off Nigeria and Cameroon, they may be reaping some of the profits and using the money for ongoing terrorist training or weapons.

No final decisions have been made on how counter-piracy operations could be increased in that region, and budget restrictions could hamper that effort, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about emerging discussions between senior U.S. military commanders and other international leaders.

But officials say the solution could include continued work and counter-piracy training with African nations. The U.S. participated last month in a maritime exercise with European and African partners in the Gulf of Guinea.

“Maritime partnerships and maritime security and safety are increasingly important in the Gulf of Guinea region to combat a variety of challenges including maritime crime, illicit trafficking and piracy,” said Gen. Carter Ham, head of U.S. Africa Command.

In recent weeks, Ham and other U.S. military commanders have bluntly warned Congress that the terrorist threat from northern Africa has become far more worrisome.

“If the threat that is present in Africa is left unaddressed, it will over time grow to an increasingly dangerous and imminent threat to U.S. interests, and certainly could develop into a threat that threatens us in other places,” Ham told Congress earlier this month. …read more
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Head of US Africa command warns of Islamic threat

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The chief of the U.S. Africa Command warned on Friday that threats from Islamic extremists in Africa are increasing and if unchecked could pose a greater danger to American interests and allies.

Army Gen. Carter Ham faced some wary members of the House Armed Services Committee, who questioned a robust U.S. military involvement in Africa after more than a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ham said the threats in Africa do not match al-Qaida or the Taliban in Afghanistan, “but the trend is not good.”

“I think we have an opportunity now to work preventive effort in concert with African forces and with allies and friends globally to suppress the threat, to reverse the trend, which is increasingly worrisome to me,” Ham told the committee. “And that does not necessitate a large commitment of U.S. forces. And I do not believe that a large commitment of U.S. forces is either necessary nor appropriate under the current circumstance.”

Ham cited the growing collaboration between the Nigerian-based radical sect Boko Haram and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which bases its operations in Mali. The general said AQIM is the wealthiest affiliate of al-Qaida, due in part to ransom from kidnappings and the drug trade, and the group has been financing Boko Haram.

The two groups also have shared training and fighters.

Boko Haram has targeted Nigeria‘s weak central government with guerrilla attacks. Pressed on whether it had any intent on striking in the United States, Ham said some elements of the group are looking to attack beyond Africa to Europe and the United States.

“I think that’s why it’s important for us in partnership with Nigeria and others … to help them counter this before their capability matches their intent,” Ham said.

The challenge facing the U.S. military is determining which groups have legitimate ties to a terrorist organization such as al-Qaida and which are organizations dissatisfied with their government.

Ham also complained about “significant shortfalls in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance” as he tries to carry out his mission.

Ham’s testimony came as the United States has increased training efforts in several African nations amid widespread insurgent violence across North Africa.

AQIM-linked terrorists are believed to have played a …read more
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U.S. Military Personnel Arrive In Niger: Obama In Letter To Congress

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By The Huffington Post News Editors

WASHINGTON, Feb 22 (Reuters) – The Pentagon has deployed about 100 troops to the West African nation of Niger to conduct unmanned reconnaissance flights over Mali and share intelligence with French forces fighting al Qaeda-affiliated militants, President Barack Obama told Congress on Friday.
Obama, in a letter to congressional leaders, said the last 40 of the approximately 100 military personnel had arrived in Niger on Wednesday and were “deployed with weapons for the purpose of providing their own force protection and security.”
“This deployment will provide support for intelligence collection and will also facilitate intelligence sharing with French forces conducting operations in Mali, and with other partners in the region,” the president said.
The United States and Niger signed a Status of Forces Agreement last month that governs the presence of American troops in the country, paving the way for sending unarmed drones and military personnel.
A Pentagon official said U.S. Africa Command, which handles military ties with Africa, had sent the unmanned planes to Niger “to support a range of regional security missions and engagements with partner nations.”
“This effort is designed to promote regional stability in support of U.S. diplomacy and national security and to strengthen relationships with regional leaders committed to security and prosperity,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
France intervened in Mali, which borders Niger, last month as Islamist forces, who seized control of the north in the confusion following a military coup in March 2012, pushed towards the capital Bamako.
That lifted Mali to the forefront of U.S. and European security concerns, with fears the Islamists would turn the country into a base for international attacks.
The United States already has drones and surveillance aircraft stationed at several points around Africa. Its only permanent military base is in the small country of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, more than 3,000 miles (4,828 km) from Mali.
Niger gave permission for U.S. surveillance drones to be stationed on its territory to improve intelligence on al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters …read more
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US eyes drone base in Africa with al-Qaida in mind

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Plans to base unarmed American surveillance drones in the African nation of Niger highlight the Obama administration’s growing concern about extremist influences in the volatile region. They also raise tough questions about how to contain al-Qaida and other militant groups without committing U.S. ground forces in yet another war.

In the short run, a drone base would enable the U.S. to give France more intelligence on the militants its troops are fighting in neighboring Mali. Over time it could extend the reach not only of American intelligence gathering but also U.S. special operations missions to strengthen Niger’s own security forces.

The U.S. and Niger in recent days signed a “status of forces agreement” spelling out legal protections and obligations of U.S. forces that might operate in Niger in the future.

Pentagon spokesman George Little acknowledged the agreement, but declined Tuesday to discuss U.S. plans for a military presence in Niger.

“They expressed a willingness to engage more closely with us, and we are happy to engage with them,” Little said, adding that the legal agreement was months in the making and is unrelated to the recent fighting in Mali.

The U.S. has found some of its efforts to fight extremists hobbled by some African governments, whose own security forces are ill-equipped to launch a U.S.-style hunt for the militants, yet are reluctant to accept U.S. help because of fears the Americans will overstay their welcome and trample their sovereignty.

At France‘s request, the U.S. has flown 17 Air Force transport flights to move French troops and their equipment to Mali in recent days, Little said. U.S. aircraft also are conducting aerial refueling French fighter jets based in Mali, he said, and those operations will continue.

Other U.S. officials said the Pentagon is planning a new drone base in northwestern Africa — most likely in Niger — but the plans are not yet complete. It would provide more extended U.S. aerial surveillance of militants in the region without risking the loss of air crews. The main U.S. drone base in Africa is in Djibouti in East Africa.

Niger has accepted the idea of hosting unarmed U.S. drones as well as conventional and special operations troops to advise and assist Niger’s military on border security, but it has not endorsed armed U.S. Predator strikes or the launching of U.S. special operations raids from their territory, according to a senior U.S. military official briefed on the matter. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly.

Africa is increasingly a focus of U.S. counterterrorism efforts, even as al-Qaida remains a threat in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere. The recent terrorist attack on a natural gas complex in southeastern Algeria, in which at least 37 hostages and 29 militants were killed, illustrated the threat posed by extremists who have asserted power propelled by long-simmering ethnic tensions in Mali and the revolution in Libya.

A number of al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremist groups operate in Mali and elsewhere in the Sahara, including a group known as Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, which originated in Algeria and is active in northern Mali. Earlier this month French forces intervened to stop the extremists’ move toward Mali‘s capital, and Washington has grown more involved by providing a variety of military support to French troops.

At issue for the Obama administration is the degree to which these groups threaten U.S. security interests.

“AQIM poses a threat in the region, and I can’t rule out the possibility that AQIM poses a threat to U.S. interests,” Little said. “This is a group that has shown its ability to demonstrate brutality and to conduct attacks. And it is very important that we work with our partners in the region and our allies to thwart them.”

Army Gen. Carter Ham, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, said last week that the worry is not just the intentions of AQIM but the ability of like-minded groups to leverage their capabilities by working together.

“We’re starting to see the increasing collaboration, sharing of funding, sharing recruiting efforts, sharing of weapons and explosives and certainly a sharing of ideology that is expanding and connecting these various organizations,” Ham said at Howard University. “And I think that’s what poses at least the greatest immediate threat in the region.”

The administration has ruled out sending U.S. ground forces to Mali. Its view is that military involvement, while necessary, is not a solution to the region’s problems.

“We have said all along that there has to be more than a purely security solution to the problems in Mali, that the security track and the political track have to go hand-in-hand, that a key component of returning stability to Mali includes new elections and overturning the results of the coup firmly,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters on Monday. She was referring to the coup last spring that prompted the U.S. to withdraw military trainers and cut off other forms of direct military assistance.

Some of the Malian troops that had received U.S. training wound up siding with the rebels in the north, and others who remained loyal to the government proved incapable of standing their ground against the militants.

Adm. Bill McRaven, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, told a Washington conference on Tuesday that the key to future U.S. training operations like that is to ensure that the effort is long-lasting.

“We had an episodic presence in Mali,” McRaven said, “and while I don’t know if a persistent presence would have changed our relationship with the Malian forces — whether they would have exponentially gotten better or not. “But in order to work with a host country, you really have to have that persistent presence.”

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AP Intelligence writer Kimberly Dozier and Associated Press writer Pauline Jelinek contributed to this report.

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US official: Mali intervention 'could take years'

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A U.S. official is warning that the French-led military intervention in Mali could take years.

Don Yamamoto said Monday the French intervention is only the first phase, and that there should be no illusion that success will come quickly.

Yamamoto said the U.S. would like to see an African-led, -owned and -directed operation like the one that successfully pushed militants out of Somalia‘s capital after several years of warfare. Yamamoto, a top State Department official on Africa, spoke at an African Union summit in Addis Ababa.

The U.S. has been providing military transport to move French troops and equipment. The U.S. flew one refueling mission on Sunday, delivering 33,000 pounds of fuel, the U.S. military’s Africa Command said.

The African Union hosts a donors conference Tuesday for Mali.

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US steps up involvement in Mali as French, Malian forces retake airport

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The United States has decided to provide additional support to the French military in its war against Islamic militants in Mali by conducting aerial refueling missions.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has told the French defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, that U.S. Africa Command will provide the aerial refueling support, according to Pentagon spokesman George Little.

Little said the two defense officials discussed the refueling missions and other topics during a phone conversation Saturday.

“The leaders also discussed plans for the United States to transport troops from African nations, including Chad and Togo, to support the international effort in Mali,” Little said in a statement released by the Pentagon late Saturday.

U.S. aerial refueling planes would be a boost to air support for French ground forces as they enter areas of Mali that are controlled by al-Qaida-linked extremists.

The announcement comes a day after the Obama administration announce it has requested an additional $32 million from Congress to train African troops to fight Islamic extremists in Mali.

The U.S. has already been helping France by transporting French troops and equipment to the West African nation.

French and Malian troops regained control of the airport and bridge of the crucial, northern city of Gao on Saturday, marking their biggest advance yet in their bid to oust Al Qaeda-linked extremists who have controlled northern Mali for months, military officials said.

The move comes just two weeks after France launched its military offensive in support of the shaky, central government of this former French colony. It is unclear what kind of resistance French and Malian troops will face in the coming days.

The French military said in a statement on its website that their special forces, which had stormed in by land and by air, had come under fire from “several terrorist elements” that were later “destroyed.”

In a later press release entitled “French and Malian troops liberate Gao” the French ministry of defense said they were bringing back the town’s mayor, Sadou Diallo, who had fled to the Malian capital of Bamako far to the west.

However, a city official interviewed by telephone by The Associated Press said coalition forces so far only controlled the airport, the bridge and surrounding neighborhoods.

And in Paris, a defense ministry official clarified that the city had not been fully liberated, and that the process of freeing Gao was continuing.

Both officials spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Swooping in under the cover of darkness, the French and Malian forces faced sporadic “acts of harassment” during the day, said Col. Thierry Burkhard, a French military spokesman in Paris. He had no immediate estimate on casualties.

Gao, the largest city in northern Mali, was seized by a mixture of Al Qaeda-linked fighters more than nine months ago, and the battle to retake the city is expected to be tough.

The rebel group that turned Gao into a replica of Afghanistan under the Taliban has close ties to Moktar Belmoktar, the Algerian national who has long operated in Mali and who last week claimed responsibility for the terror attack on a BP-operated natural gas plant in Algeria.

His fighters are believed to include Algerians, Egyptians, Mauritanians, Libyans, Tunisians, Pakistanis and even Afghans.

The French assault began with the capture of the airport, a strategic landing strip that opens the way for easier sorties all over northern Mali.

The further capture of a major bridge leading into the town means that the jihadists “saw their means of transport and their logistics sites destroyed,” French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement.

The operation in Gao comes at the same time as airstrikes in the two other provincial capitals held by the extremists — the cities of Timbuktu and Kidal, which like Gao fell to the rebels last April, during the chaotic aftermath of a coup in the distant capital. Nearly 30 bombs have been fired from fighter jets over the past two days, said France‘s military in a communique.

The simultaneous aerial attacks also come at the same time that ground troops are carrying out a pincer movement, with French and African land forces heading to Gao from Niger, where Chad has sent a battalion.

French and Malian forces are also heading to Timbuktu, via the central corridor that leads straight north from the central Malian city of Segou, via the recently recaptured town of Diabaly.

In an interview Saturday, Col. Shehu Usman Abdulkadir told The Associated Press that the African force will be expanded from an anticipated 3,200 troops to some 5,700 — which does not include the 2,200 soldiers promised by Chad.

Most analysts had said the earlier figure was far too small to confront the Islamists given the vast territory they hold — an area larger than Afghanistan.

“Because they’ve seen that the area itself, northern Mali is too large for that number of troops so there was a need to increase the number and that’s why we arrived at 5700,” said Abdulkadir, the force commander. “I believe that as time goes on it may be necessary to increase the strength again. Because France pulls out we definitely must have to increase the strength.”

Since France began its military operation, the Islamists have retreated from three small towns in central Mali: Diabaly, Konna and Douentza.

For the first time on Saturday, Malian authorities opened the town of Konna to reporters. Although in most places Malians have applauded the arrival of the French, the town of Konna, built around a single, hard-top road, provides a counterweight and reveals the human toll of the operation.

Konna’s mayor had earlier said that 11 civilians were killed during the airstrikes. Among them were four relatives of Souleymane Maiga, a young, 20-something man who ran for cover on Jan. 11, the first day of the airstrikes.

He hid between two mud walls separating his compound from that of his neighbor. His aunt, and the four children, including several young girls that were with her, abandoned the pot on an open flame where they were preparing the midday meal and ran inside the house.

French combat helicopters, looking for rebels, strafed the buildings made of nothing more than mud mixed with straw.

“The women were preparing food right here in the shade of this tree, when we heard the noise made by the aircraft. I ran and threw myself between the two walls over there,” said Maiga. “After it was over, I went to the house, and when I opened the door, I saw that they were dead. Of the five people inside, only one survived. A toddler. The bodies were one on top of the other. The toddler was crying. The bullets had pierced the door. I tried to find their pulses, but they were gone. I realized it was over. I picked up the child and took him to a relative’s house in town.”

The zinc door of the modest house is pockmarked by bullet holes, some several inches wide. If you close it behind you, they let in jets of light, which illuminate the unlit interior. The can of tomato paste that the women had just opened in order to make a sauce served over rice, still sits where they left it. It had been partially opened, and now the tomato paste inside has spoiled.

Fox News’ Justin Fishel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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US to support French in Mali with aerial refueling

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The United States has decided to provide additional support to the French military in its war against Islamic militants in Mali by conducting aerial refueling missions.

The Pentagon says Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has told the French defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, that U.S. Africa Command will provide the aerial refueling support. A Pentagon spokesman says the two defense officials discussed the refueling missions and other topics during a phone conversation Saturday.

U.S. aerial refueling planes would be a boost to air support for French ground forces as they enter areas of Mali that are controlled by al-Qaida-linked extremists.

The U.S. has already been helping France by transporting French troops and equipment to the West African nation.

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Panetta: US helping French forces with intel

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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday that the U.S. is already providing intelligence-gathering assistance to the French in their assault on Islamist extremists in Mali, and that officials would not rule out having American aircraft land in the North African nation as part of future efforts to lend airlift and logistical support.

Speaking to reporters traveling with him to Europe, Panetta said that while al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, also known as AQIM, and other affiliate groups in Mali may not pose an immediate threat to the United States, “ultimately that remains their objective.”

For that reason, he said, “we have to take steps now so that AQIM does not get that kind of traction.”

The United States has “a responsibility to go after al-Qaida wherever they are,” including Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and North Africa, Panetta said. “We have a responsibility to make sure that al-Qaida doesn’t establish a base of operations in northern Africa.”

He declined to go into detail about the U.S. aid, but he spoke with Gen. Carter Ham, head of U.S. Africa Command, during the flight to get an update on the situation.

A senior U.S. official acknowledged that the intelligence support had started, but said talks were continuing to determine exactly what other aid will be provided. It was not clear how long it would be before those decisions are made. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue so requested anonymity.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said U.S. officials were consulting with their French counterparts on a number of requests for support.

“We share the French goal of denying terrorists safe haven,” she told reporters in Washington.

International efforts would have to focus on strengthening Mali‘s military, which suffered another setback Monday, Nuland said. After cutting off a key road, al-Qaida-linked extremists moved closer to Mali‘s capital by overrunning the garrison town of Diabaly in the center of the country. They are now only 250 miles from the capital, Bamako, in the far south.

“Even as the Malian military works with France … to try to root out these havens where the rebels have taken root, they’re still going to have to be strong enough to hold that territory once they reclaim it,” Nuland said.

Panetta’s comments came as the French continued bombing raids across Mali‘s north in an effort to root out fighters who seized control of a large chunk of the region about nine months ago. The U.S. and six other countries are providing assistance, with the Pentagon assisting in transportation and intelligence gathering, including one drone.

French fighter jets bombed the airport, training camps, warehouses and other facilities used by the al-Qaida linked rebels, and at least 400 French troops have been deployed to the country as part of the broad-based, coordinated attacks.

French President Francois Hollande authorized the military assault as it became clear that the rebels could break Mali‘s military defenses in Mopti, the first town on the government-controlled side, located in the center of this African country.

The French have suggested that the rebels are better armed than initially expected, having obtained caches of weapons stolen from the abandoned arsenal of Moammar Gadhafi, the former Libyan leader who was killed in the wake of the rebel uprising in his country. The Islamists also have gained control of weapons left by Mali‘s army when it abandoned the north when the rebels began advancing last spring.

Panetta is embarking on what is expected to be his final overseas trip as defense chief, with stops in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Great Britain. He has plans to step down once the Senate has confirmed his successor. President Barack Obama has nominated former Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.

He was en route Monday to Portugal, where he is expected to talk to defense officials about the U.S. plans to reduce its presence at the Lajes military base in the Azores islands. The cutbacks would remove more than 400 military personnel and as many as 500 family members from the base in 2014. It is expected that the Air Force service members that remain would serve yearlong tours and would not be accompanied by their families.

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Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to this report.

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