WASHINGTON ‹ The Pentagon is preparing to send reinforcements into the war on terror with new troops expected to deploy to Yemen and the Philippines in the next few weeks, according to military officials.
A logistics assessment team is in Yemen now preparing for the arrival of as many as 150 American troops to help train that country's military to fight terrorism. Pentagon officials said an initial group of 50 to 70 troops would be sent by the end of the month, with the remainder arriving in the weeks after.
They will consist predominantly of special forces, but will also include seaport and airport security specialists.
"They are going to be working closely with the Yemeni forces and cooperating in a variety of different ways," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Monday. Navy and Coast Guard advisers have already been helping to train the Yemeni forces that patrol the country's 2,400-kilometer-long (1,500-mile) coast. Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there were no plans to resume port calls in Aden, the Yemeni port where terrorists attacked the U.S. destroyer Cole 16 months ago, killing 17 American sailors. Yemen is the Bush administration's latest partner in a widening campaign that has grown beyond Afghanistan to the Gulf, the Philippines and probably to the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
About 575 U.S. troops, including 160 special forces soldiers, are in the Philippines advising and training local troops who are trying to surround the Muslim separatist group Abu Sayyaf on the southern island of Basilan. Rumsfeld said he was awaiting a final proposal from his military advisers to send additional forces to the Philippines, mostly engineers and civil affairs specialists. A senior military official said that the deployment would probably go ahead soon, but that Rumsfeld was treading carefully to ensure political sensitivities with Manila were fully discussed. The Philippines is a treaty ally led by a staunchly pro-American president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. But sending U.S. troops to help Philippine forces fight terrorism has proven delicate and divisive. "There are some proposals being discussed internally as to what in addition might be done, if anything," Rumsfeld said. "But they're in the thinking stage."
President George W. Bush ordered the Yemen deployment several weeks ago, and since then military officials have been working with their Yemeni counterparts on its details. In a trip last month, Vice President Dick Cheney met with the Yemeni president, General Ali Abdullah Saleh, primarily to discuss assistance to prevent the country from becoming a haven for terrorists. Western investigators have said that Yemen is home to at least 20 senior Al Qaeda officials and scores of fighters trained in Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.
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