WANTED: Joseph Kony & The Lord's Resistance Army

By ADAM ENTOUS and JULIAN E. BARNES

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has authorized the deployment of up to 100 combat-equipped U.S. troops to central Africa to help hunt down the leaders of a rebel force known as the Lord's Resistance Army.

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Associated Press

Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army during a meeting with a delegation of officials and lawmakers from northern Uganda in 2006.

A senior administration official said 12 troops have been deployed so far under what he called a training mission aimed at helping African forces find and kill Joseph Kony, the fugitive head of the rebels.

The U.S. forces will deploy to Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"Although the U.S. forces are combat-equipped, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to partner nation forces, and they will not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self-defense," Mr. Obama said in a letter to Congress released Friday.

The U.S. deployment will include special operations forces, defense officials said. Pentagon officials noted that U.S. forces are routinely deployed to Africa for training missions.

The Lord's Resistance Army is believed to have killed, kidnapped and mutilated tens of thousands of civilians since the 1990s. Military officials said they believed Mr. Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, and other top LRA leaders are currently hiding the Central African Republic.

The LRA, which says it is a religious group, first emerged in northern Uganda in the 1990s but was driven out by the Ugandan military. Although Mr. Kony is thought to command just a few hundred armed loyalists, the LRA's mobility and the difficulties of the terrain has made the group hard to find, officials said.