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U.S. Aims to Stop Islamic Extremists Fleeing Somalia
[Reuters] Paul Eckert - U.S. forces are deployed near Somalia to block the escape of members of that country's ousted Islamist government with ties to al-Qaeda and other extremists, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Wednesday. "We of course have a presence off the coast of Somalia and Horn of Africa to make sure there are no escape routes by sea where these individuals could flee," McCormack said. U.S. officials said before the war the top layer of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) was controlled by a cell of al-Qaeda operatives. The head of the council, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, is on UN and U.S. extremist lists.