The Hindu : Front Page : Terrorists may replicate 26/11 elsewhere, says Obama

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Terrorists may replicate 26/11 elsewhere, says Obama

Washington: President-elect Barack Obama on Sunday voiced the fear that Mumbai-type attacks can be replicated by terrorists in other parts of the world, including the U.S. and said his administration would focus on putting more pressure on “our major target” Al-Qaeda.

Asked about the 26/11 terror strikes in an interview to ABC News, Mr. Obama said the “danger is always there” to have a Mumbai-type attack in an American city.

“When you see what happened in Mumbai, that potentially points to a new strategy, not simply suicide bombings but you have commandos taking over...,” he said.

“I think you have to anticipate that having seen the mayhem that was created in Mumbai, that there are going to be potential copycats or other terrorist organisations that think this is something that they can replicate,” Mr. Obama said.

At a Congressional hearing on the Mumbai attacks this week, top U.S. intelligence and police officials expressed similar fears and said this made it all the more necessary to ensure that those responsible for such an attack be brought to justice, given that U.S. cities are always on top of the hit-list of the Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

Primary focus

“So we’re going to have to be vigilant in terms of our intelligence, we’re going to have to make sure that we are more effective in terms of anticipating some of these issues, and we’ve got to continue to put pressure on Al-Qaeda, which is our major target — that’s something that I talked about extensively during the campaign,” Mr. Obama said.

“That has to be one of our primary areas of focus when it comes to our international security,” he said. — PTI

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