Somalia, War On Terror | featured news

The acknowledgment that United States military forces have taken “direct action” in those countries opens the window further into the president’s secret war on terrorists.

The United States is assembling a series of secret drone bases for an aggressive campaign against al-Qaida-linked groups in Somalia and Yemen, the Washingon Post reports.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, who arrived in Kabul on Saturday, also said the American focus had narrowed to capturing or killing key leaders of the terrorist group in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.

The wealth of information pulled from Osama bin Laden's compound has reinforced the belief that he played a strong role in planning and directing attacks by Al Qaeda and its affiliates in Yemen and Somalia, senior U.S. officials said Friday.