By Justin Dralaze
KAMPALA (Reuters) - The United States added its voice on Monday to growing calls at an African summit for more troops to tackle Somalia's Islamist rebels, who this month killed 76 people in suicide attacks in Uganda.
Delegates at the African Union (AU) summit, being held in Kampala close to the site of the bombings, are debating the mandate of 6,300 AU peacekeepers in Somalia, which are barely managing to keep the country's besieged government in power.
Sources at the meeting told Reuters a cap of 8,100 on troop levels would likely be lifted. A more contentious possibility was that the force, known as AMISOM, be given permission to go after the rebels. It can now fight only when attacked.
"There is no doubt there is a need for more troops on the ground," Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting.
AMISOM is made of up of Ugandan and Burundian troops. Its alleged killing of civilians with indiscriminate shelling was the reason given by the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebels for their bombings of crowds in Kampala watching the World Cup soccer final on television.
"We in Washington have committed ourselves to supplying the additional troops on the ground in the same fashion that we have supplied the existing Burundian and Ugandan troops," Carson said, referring to U.S. financial and technical help.
Reuters Africa
