WASHINGTON, Jan 3 (Reuters) - U.S. forces are deployed off the coast of Somalia to stop members of that country's ousted Islamist government with ties to al Qaeda and other extremists from fleeing, a State Department spokesman said on Wednesday.
"We would be concerned that no leaders who were members of the Islamic Courts which have ties to terrorist organizations including al Qaeda are allowed to flee and leave Somalia," spokesman Sean McCormack said.
"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. He declined to provide details about the U.S. forces.
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McCormack did not name specific extremists, but 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 U.N. and U.S. extremist lists.
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