A top US general has said al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, will try to relocate to the Horn of Africa if Iraq is stabilized

BBC News:

Major-General Douglas Lute cited Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia as likely "safe havens" for jihadists.

He said that "vast ungoverned spaces" of east Africa were likely to appeal to Zarqawi's insurgents as operations in Iraq and Afghanistan become difficult.

US troops based in Djibouti already aim to stop infiltration from the Red Sea.

"There will come a time when Zarqawi will face too much resistance in Iraq and will move on," Maj Gen Lute said.

He warned that Zarqawi's network remained determined to demonstrate a "show of force" in the run-up to Iraq's constitutional referendum and subsequent elections.

"He has to go down fighting," Maj Gen Lute said.

The warning is the latest in a series issued by the US that al-Qaeda would try to reconvene in east Africa after its safe haven in Afghanistan was removed in 2001, when a US-led attack ousted the Taleban.

Since then the 900-strong US force has been deployed to Djibouti in an effort to stop militants entering the Horn of Africa at its tip.

US troops also train Eritrean and Ethiopian forces.

The BBC's Martin Plaut says US work in Somalia, where Islamic fundamentalists already have a foothold, has been hampered by the absence of an effective government.

The US recently warned that Africa's Sahel countries, including Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad, could become a terrorist haven, and has carried out troop exercises and training efforts in the region.

Maj Gen Lute is operations head at US Central Command, and is responsible for planning the way ahead over 12 to 18 months for almost 140,000 US troops, 8,000 British soldiers and 15,000 other foreign troops currently in Iraq.

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