REPORTING FROM WASHINGTON AND JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA -- President Obama is deploying about 100 special operations troops to Africa to help target the leadership of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a notorious rebel group that has been entrenched in a stalemate with the government of Uganda for more than two decades. In a letter notifying Congress on Friday, Obama said the first small team of U.S. “combat-equipped” advisors arrived in Uganda on Wednesday. Over the next month, the remaining U.S. troops will be sent to surrounding countries, including South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Congo. The goal of the U.S. mission is to assist regional African forces in removing Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony and other commanders of the group “from the battlefield,” the letter says. “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,” the letter says A militia known for abducting children and forcing them to fight, often mutilating them, the Lord’s Resistance Army has long been condemned by the U.S. and human rights organizations for atrocities against civilians. The militia keeps sex slaves, rapes women and has killed thousands of people. For years, in Uganda and neighboring countries, it has resisted efforts by African forces to curb its violence. U.S. sends troops to Uganda to help fight Lord's Resistance Army - latimes.com