US pushes antiterror alliance for North African nations

STUTTGART, Germany -- The United States is urging a group of North African nations to create a regional security alliance to combat the mounting terrorist threat on the continent, US military officials said.

The initiative emerged as defense chiefs from eight African countries -- Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Chad, Niger, Senegal, Mauritania, and Mali -- met with American officials last month at the US military's European Command headquarters in Stuttgart to begin hammering out a strategy for confronting security threats in the region.

North African-based terrorist groups have become a major focus since the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, which killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800. The Spanish investigation into those attacks has focused on the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, which allegedly has links to Al Qaeda.

Even before the Madrid attacks, the US armed forces had been providing intelligence to North African militaries battling another Al Qaeda ally in the region: the Algeria-based Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, known by its French acronym GSPC.

By bringing the eight African defense chiefs together, some of them meeting formally for the first time, the United States is pushing for a more proactive, coordinated, and multilateral approach to the terrorism problem in Africa.

"Most agreed that the number one security challenge is Islamic extremism and terrorism," a senior US military official present at the talks said on condition of anonymity.

The official added that the eight African countries agreed to cooperate at the tactical military level to fight terrorism for the time being, coordinating communications and conducting joint patrols. They plan to consult with their governments about deeper collaboration.

The United States is urging the group -- possibly along with Nigeria -- to form a formal security alliance perhaps as early as the end of the year, officials said. A second meeting between the African and US military officials is scheduled for the summer.

"Our involvement in Africa is one that I think is going to be long-lasting," Marine General James Jones, NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, said in a recent interview, adding that the United States needs to be more proactive on the continent, rather than responding to crises as they arise. "What we have lacked is a coordinated approach."

The Africa initiative by the US European Command is part of an effort by the American military worldwide to refocus resources and recruit allies to more effectively fight the war on terrorism.

"We can't go everywhere and do everything," General Charles Wald, deputy commander of US forces in Europe, said in a recent interview. "We need partners."

Wald is scheduled to give a speech outlining the emerging Africa policy at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

In addition to building alliances, the policy also seeks to address other causes OF instability, including the AIDS epidemic, illegal migration, poverty, and overpopulation, military officials said.

"To let this fester is a recipe for disaster," Wald said. "Afghanistan is a perfect example of that."

Last month, troops from Chad and Niger, aided by US intelligence, killed an estimated 43 GSPC militants after they were forced from hideouts near the Algeria-Mali border, and then fled across Niger to Chad, according to press reports.

The GSPC, a radical offshoot of the Armed Islamic Group, has been fighting the Algerian government for more than a decade and has been on the US government list of terrorist groups since 2002. The group declared its allegiance to Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in October and made headlines last year by kidnapping 32 European hostages in the Sahara.

The United States has also recently stepped up training programs for north and central African militaries.

From January to March, US troops from the first battalion of the 10th Special Forces Group, based in Stuttgart, helped train soldiers in Mali and Mauritania in antiterrorist operations and tactics. The US military is planning similar training programs this summer for forces in Chad and Niger, officials said.

The training is part of the Pan-Sahel Initiative, a $7.75 million State Department program to help militaries in the Sahel region, the Sahara's arid southern fringe, combat terrorism.

A multilateral approach is essential in Africa, where porous borders allow terrorists to move around with relative ease, officials say. But getting African nations, some of whom are bitter rivals and have been involved in decades-long territorial disputes, to work together will be no easy task. The Western Sahara, for example, is the subject of a long-running dispute between Morocco, which claims the territory, and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, which seeks its independence. US officials are also concerned that some African governments could face domestic troubles if they are seen as aligning themselves too closely with the United States.

For this reason, military officials say such an alliance would probably be established under the umbrella of the African Union, formed by 53 countries in 2002 to replace the Organization of African Unity. The officials say last month's meetings were just the first step in a long process.

"This is a leap ahead of where we thought we would be," the senior US military official present at the talks said.