With the U.S. military now planning a new drone base to track extremists in northern Mali, senior U.S. intelligence officials confirmed Thursday that the Al Qaeda affiliate in North Africa aspires to strike more U.S. and other western targets in the region.
This includes “hardened” targets such as diplomatic and military facilities, as well as “soft” targets, such as American citizens working in North Africa. The warning follows the deadly terrorist strike on an Algeria gas plant in which dozens of hostages, including three Americans, were killed.
