United States military officers visited Somalia today for talks with opposition warlords to identify potential terrorist targets in the anarchic country, sources close to the warlords said today.
There has been widespread speculation the United States is planning a military campaign in Somalia as a second phase in its war on terrorism, but Washington has played down the possibility of imminent strikes against the ruined Horn of Africa country.
"They were discussing whether they (the warlords) know of any terrorist bases in south and southwest Somalia," one of the sources said.
The sources said that five officers visited the town of Baidoa, some 240 km southwest of the capital Mogadishu, for talks with leaders of the Rahanwein Resistance Army (RRA), a faction opposed to Somalia's fledgling central government.