The United States has begun anti -terrorist operation in Sudan

The United States began an anti -terrorist operation in Sudan. For the first time in 10 years, the US Air Force military transport aircraft Hercules landed in the Sudanese capital of Hartum, the UN regional news channel reports.

The plane delivered military personnel and equipment for deploying the base of the American United Family response forces in the African horns in Sudan. Previously, a similar base was created in Eritrea, ITAR-TASS reports.

For a long time, the relations of Washington and Hartum were on the verge of war. The United States has repeatedly accused Sudan of supporting international terrorism. In 1998, the Pentagon delivered a missile strike at the pharmaceutical factory in Hartum, where, according to the Americans, the chemical weapons components were supposedly produced. The United States also reported the availability of terrorist training camps in this country.

The official representative of the US Department of State Richard Bucker noted that relations with Sudan in the field of counteracting terrorism are constantly improving. At the meeting of Colin Powell with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sudan Mustafoy Ismail discussed the ways of further cooperation.

Nevertheless, as the Voice of America radio station notes, while the United States is in no hurry to exclude Sudan from countries suspected of financing terrorism. In this list, in addition to Sudan, there are Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea and Syria. These US countries apply various sanctions, including a ban on arms deliveries.

The head of the Pentagon Military Mission in Hartum, Colonel Dennis Hiddens, said that “important changes” occurred in the relationship between the two countries. According to him, Sudan a year ago suggested that the United States open a military communication mission in Hartum. "Recently, Sudan has shown an active approach to the war against terrorism, took steps to ensure that the terrorists could not get refuge and means for their activities," he said.

It is possible that the US anti -terrorist operation is directly related to the continuation of the military operation in Iraq. Recall that at the end of April, the former Foreign Minister Jordan Javad al-Avani, now living in the United Arab Emirates, told local television that if Saddam Hussein is alive, he is most likely hiding in Islamists in Sudan.

Sudan's alleged connections with Al-Qaeda

The authoritative in diamond circles the non-governmental organization Global Witness has collected convincing evidence that Al-Qaeda’s activities were largely funded by the Bloody Diamonds.

Conflict (or "bloody") is called diamonds extracted illegally in "hot spots", mainly in Africa - Angola, Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia. They sell them through a network of intermediaries - including in Sudan .

Al-Qaeda for the first time about 20 years ago, the Diamond business. First, her emissaries appeared in Kenya and Tanzania, and then in Sierra Leone and Liberia, where the interest of this organization in the trading of diamonds clearly manifested in 1998. According to Global Witness, the explosions of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were funded precisely due to conflict diamonds.

Traces of Al-Qaeda also lead to the Diamond provinces of Angola, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea. In 1993-1997, one of the high-ranking members of Al-Qaeda Abu Ubadia al-Banshiri and the personal secretary of Osama Ben Laden El Haju established the supply of diamonds and other precious stones from Kenya and Tanzania, constituting several companies for the extraction of diamonds and gold.

Al-Qaeda, as it turned out, even managed to create a kind of gold reserve: its secret assets consisted not only of diamond effluents, but also of significant reserves of gold ingots. In the fall of 2002, there were reports that the gold supply of terrorists was successfully removed from Pakistan to Sudan .

According to the Washington Post, the gold under the guise of other cargo was transported on small boats from Karachi to the UAE (Dubai) or Iran, and from there on airplanes were delivered to the capital of Sudan Hartum. The choice of Sudan is due to the fact that both Osama Ben Laden and other prominent members of the terrorist network had extensive business communications in this country and are familiar with it. While financial transactions from Saudi Arabia and the UAE are the object of close attention of special services, financial transactions in Sudan can be carried out more freely and secretly.

International terrorist organizations have been using the fact that for several decades there has been a civil war for several decades

Recall that last summer in Sudan an agreement was reached on the settlement of a long -term conflict - one of the most bloody in modern history. In July, at negotiations in the capital of Kenya Nairobi, representatives of the Sudanese government and the rebel people's Liberation Army agreed on positions on most controversial issues.

One of the members of the government delegation said that the peace plan provides for the preservation of a single federal Sudan. Representatives of the UN, the USA and the UK participated in the negotiations as intermediaries and observers.

The Civil War in Sudan, who has claimed the lives of over 1 million people, has been in the country since 1983. The troops of the Islamic government are opposed by armed detachments of Christians and pagans living in the south of the country.

However, even after concluding an agreement on the world, inter -tribal conflicts in Sudan continued. Therefore, last Monday, the Sudanese parliament has extended an emergency operating in the country for another year since 1999.