- Two German warships with 1,600 troops aboard arrive in
Djibouti next Wednesday to take part in operations against suspected terrorists
in Somalia.
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- Sources said the contingent, the biggest movement of
German troops outside its borders since the Second World war, joins a allied
forces that dismantled the al Qaeda network in Afghanistan forced out the
Taliban regime.
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- Sources in Nairobi said the Germans would take part in
the second round of the war on terrorism which analysts predict will target
Somalia and possibly neighbouring Sudan.
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- Somalia has been without a commonly accepted central
government since the overthrow of Mr Siad Barre in 1991.
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- A transition government established with the support
of neighbouring countries recently has denied reports that Osama bin Laden's
al Qaeda terrorist network has cells in the country, a view that American
authorities do not share.
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- The warships, from the German city of Hanover, are expected
off the coast of Djibouti on January 2.
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- Reports of Germany's participation in the new phase of
the war came amid calls by Somali warlords for international military intervention
in the country.
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- Three Somali factions said radical Islamic groups, al
Qaeda and al-Itihad, had several bases in the Horn of Africa country.
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- Somaliaís transitional government has strongly
denied the presence of terrorist cells, and diplomats have warned that
opposition warlords may use the US war on terror to try and damage their
opponents.
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- At a news conference in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa,
warlords Hassan Mohammed Nur Shatigudud, General Abdullahi Nur Gabyow and
Hussein Aideed said foreign intervention was needed to stop extremist groups
going underground.
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- But diplomats have warned that militia chiefs, who flourished
in the chaos of civil war and control large parts of Somalia, have seized
on the US anti-terror campaign as their own route back to power.
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