Key events in recent history of Somalia

By The Associated Press The Associated Press – 31 mins ago

Key events in recent Somali history:

• Jan. 27, 1991: Guerrillas win control of Somalia fighting forces President Mohamed Siad Barre from his official residence. Siad Barre had ruled since 1969.

• Dec. 4, 1992: President George H.W. Bush authorizes U.S. troops to lead a mercy mission to Somalia in "Operation Restore Hope," America's largest humanitarian mission.

• May 1993: The U.N. establishes a peacekeeping mission in Somalia involving about 28,000 troops from 33 countries, 4,400 of them Americans.

• Oct. 3, 1993: Eighteen U.S. servicemen are killed and more than 70 wounded when warlord Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidid's militiamen shot down two U.S. helicopters in events that inspired the book and film, "Black Hawk Down."

• Oct. 6, 1993: President Bill Clinton says all U.S. forces will be withdrawn in six months.

• March 25, 1994: The U.S. completes its military withdrawal from Somalia. In all, 44 Americans died, 30 in combat.

• March 2, 1995: The last U.N. peacekeepers leave Somalia after failing to establish a functioning government.

• June 5, 2006: Militias loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts take control of Mogadishu and other parts of the south after defeating U.S.-backed warlords in fighting that left more than 330 people dead.

• Dec. 1, 2006: The United States circulates a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that would authorize a regional force to protect Somalia's weak government and lift an arms embargo on the country to allow the troops to be armed. The resolution is authorized Dec. 7.

• Jan. 8, 2007: U.S. forces launch airstrikes in the first offensive in Somalia since 1993. A U.S. intelligence official says it was believed to have killed an al-Qaida member suspected in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

• June 1, 2007: A U.S. warship pounds Somalia's remote coastal northeast, targeting Islamic militants hours after a gunbattle with Somali government forces that left eight insurgents dead, officials say.

• March 3, 2008: The U.S. Navy fires at least one missile in southern Somalia targeting al-Qaida fugitive Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, defense officials say.

• May 1, 2008: U.S. missiles destroy the house of Aden Hashi Ayro, identified by the U.S. military as the top al-Qaida commander in Somalia, killing him and 10 others.

• April 12, 2009: U.S. Navy snipers kill three Somali pirates who had stormed the cargo ship Maersk Alabama and held its captain, Richard Phillips, of Underhill, Vt., hostage.

• April 23, 2009: The U.S. and nearly a dozen other nations pledge more than $250 million to strengthen Somali security forces. It includes military equipment and development aid.

• Sept. 15, 2009: U.S. helicopters fire on a convoy in southern Somalia, killing top al-Qaida fugitive, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, according to U.S. and Somali officials.

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Source: AP reporting.

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Associated Press researchers Julie Reed and Judy Ausuebel compiled this report.