Abizaid's headquarters staff in qatar to be increased

The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced November 14 that it will send several hundred military staff members to Qatar in the next few weeks.

The decision to increase the number of personnel assigned to Qatar follows a recent increase in attacks against the occupation forces.

The announcement was made from CENTCOM headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, a day after its commander, General John Abizaid, told reporters at a briefing that CENTCOM "is in the center of the global war on terror." He said the ongoing battle against terrorism "is being fought in Pakistan ... Afghanistan ... Iraq ... Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It's being fought throughout the area."

CENTCOM has maintained a forward headquarters base of operations in Qatar since 2002. The staff level tends to rise and fall depending upon the tempo of operations and the schedule of military exercises in the region for which it is responsible.

CENTCOM has responsibility for 25 nations in the Middle East, Southwest Asia and the Horn of Africa: Bahrain, Iraq, Oman, Egypt, Pakistan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Djibouti, Yemen, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, the Seychelles, Jordan, Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.