LONDON: U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said Saturday that the United States would "take all necessary steps to protect our people" from the threat of Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants in north Africa.
Speaking to the BBC about the Algerian hostage crisis during a visit to London, he said: "Whether or not that involves assisting others with military operations, whether it involves developing in a cooperative way operations there, those are areas that I think remain to be decided."