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WASHINGTON, January 10th (AFP) — President Barack Obama says he has "no intention" of sending US troops to fight militants in Yemen and Somalia and that Al-Qaeda's activities are still centered along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
"I have every intention of working with our international partners in lawless areas around the globe to make sure that we're keeping the American people safe," Obama said in a People interview to be published Friday. The magazine released a transcript Sunday.
"I never rule out any possibility in a world that is this complex... In countries like Yemen, in countries like Somalia, I think working with international partners is most effective at this point.
"I have no intention of sending US boots on the ground in these regions," he added.
Recent strikes on Al-Qaeda positions in Yemen, including cruise missile attacks, were reportedly led by the United States, which has vowed to boost its economic and military aid to Sanaa. London and Washington have already announced plans to fund a counter-extremism police in the country.
The top US military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen acknowledged in a CNN interview Sunday that the United States was providing "some support" to Yemen's efforts to strike Al-Qaeda militants, but insisted that Sanaa led the operations.
A thinly stretched US military has deployed large troop contingents to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The number of US troops in Afghanistan -- where Obama has vowed to recenter the US war against Al-Qaeda militants who have also sought refuge in neighboring Pakistan -- is set to triple under his watch from 2008 levels, reaching some 100,000 later this year.
Washington has urged Yemen to crack down on Al-Qaeda after the local franchise of Osama bin Laden's network said it was behind a narrowly-avoided Christmas Day bombing aboard a US-bound airliner.
But the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country already faces a litany of challenges, including a water shortage, dwindling oil reserves, a Shiite rebellion in the north and a movement for autonomy in the south.
Somalia is also the focus of US counterterrorism efforts, where an embattled transitional government faces relentless attacks from extremist Shabaab militants and their Hezb al-Islam allies.
The central government asserts little control over the country located along key shipping routes to oil fields in the Middle East.
International navies are battling to keep key shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean free from pirates, who are broadening their area of operation.
"We've known throughout this year that Al-Qaeda in Yemen has become a more serious problem. And as a consequence, we have partnered with the Yemeni government to go after those terrorist training camps and cells there in a much more deliberate and sustained fashion," Obama said.
"The same is true in Somalia, another country where there are large chunks that are not fully under government control and Al-Qaeda is trying to take advantage of them."
He insisted that "the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan remains the epicenter of Al-Qaeda, their leadership and their extremist allies."
