US trains Africa troops in Bamako, Mali

[XXPANTHAXX]

16jun05

STANDING in front of rows of rusting army trucks, a dented
bugle in hand, a Malian airman watches on bemused as a team
of US soldiers erects another inflatable air-conditioned tent
under one of his hangars.

This run-down airforce base on the edge of Mali's dusty
capital Bamako is home for three weeks to hundreds of US
military experts co-ordinating training exercises for some
3000 soldiers in countries around West Africa.

US Air Force C-130 cargo planes fly in on an almost daily
basis, dwarfing the motley collection of Malian aircraft
hangars as they deliver fuel and supplies for teams of
Special Forces training in five countries on the barren
fringes of the Sahara.

Three MH-53 helicopters used by special operations forces are
on standby to support the teams in Mali, Mauritania, Niger,
Chad and Algeria - countries where Washington fears Islamic
militants may be recruiting and regrouping.

"The Americans have incredible means," said the Malian horn
player, dressed in military fatigues and blue flip-flops and
standing under the blazing sun next to a flagpole in
overgrown grass at the back of the base.

Operation Flintlock is meant to help stem weapons smuggling
and stop Islamic militants finding havens in the vast swathes
of desert that stretch from West Africa's Atlantic coast to
Sudan, a region roughly the size of the continental United
States.

It aims to help a total of nine countries - most of whose
armies are very poorly equipped - to plan and execute their
own counter-terrorism strategies as well as peacekeeping,
humanitarian and disaster relief operations.

"It's not a hugely hi-tech solution we are trying to impose
on these countries. It is about developing the relationships
we need between their militaries," said a US commander who is
co-ordinating the exercises and who declined to be named.

Military experts from four European nations are also involved
in monitoring the exercises.

The African soldiers are being schooled in basic military
techniques, including border surveillance and land
navigation, with the aim of establishing common practices
which will allow them to fight in the future alongside
foreign forces if need be.

"It's about building a coalition," the US commander said.

Flintlock aims to build on training by US Marines and Special
Forces last year in the deserts of Niger, Chad, Mali and
Mauritania, part of a Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorist
Initiative (TSCTI) expected to cost the US $100 million over
five years.

Some US officials fear that an Algerian militant group allied
to al Qaeda, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
(GSPC), is trying to broaden its base in the region after a
posting on a Islamist website said it had killed 15
Mauritanian soldiers in an attack on a remote outpost earlier
this month.

Security sources in Algeria say small, mobile and cash-rich
units of the GSPC are a threat to parts of northern Africa
but that the organization itself is on its last legs.
Washington appears to be taking no chances.

"There is far more to it than a bunch of dudes with guns,"
the US commander said.

"Years ago Hamas and Hizbollah became well-known. Then it was
who are al Qaeda? Now it's who are these GSPC guys? The
threats are not clear and present," he said.