Nation suffers fighting, hardship
History of Somalia since the collapse of the last effective central government:
January 1991: President Mohamed Siad Barre is overthrown by clan-based rebels, who quickly turn on one another.
April 1992: Massive UN relief operation begins to help thousands of civilians left starving because of fighting. More than 100,000 people died between 1991 and 1992.
August 1992: US planes begin delivering food to Somalia; within a month US Marines arrive to guard it.
January 1993: US stages first airstrike on warlord headquarters.
October 1993: Militiamen shoot down Blackhawk helicopter; 18 servicemen die in crash and subsequent rescue attempt. US troops reduce combat operations against warlords.
March 1994: US troops withdraw from Somalia, leaving a UN peacekeeping operation in place.
March 1995: US Marines escort the last UN peacekeepers out of Somalia, ending a two-year, $2 billion relief operation.
August 1998: Simultaneous suicide bombings destroy the US Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing more than 200 Africans and 12 Americans. The ringleaders flee to Somalia.
November 2002: An Al Qaeda cell attacks an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya, killing 15, and attempts to shoot down an Israeli-owned airliner. Investigators believe the same men responsible for the embassy bombings planned the attacks, and again fled to Somalia afterward.
March 2003: Warlord Mohammed Dhere captures a suspect in the 1998 bombings and turns him over to US authorities, via Kenya. There are reports he has captured other suspected Al Qaeda members and turned them over to US authorities as well.
October 2004: After two years of UN-sponsored talks, Somalia warlords and civilian leaders meeting in Nairobi agree on a new government with former colonel Abdullahi Yusuf as president.
March 2005: Islamic leader Hassan Dahir Aweys, a former army colonel, threatens a holy war if foreign troops enter Somalia again, pledges to establish an Islamic government.
Feb. 26: UN-backed parliament meets for the first time inside Somalia, in the central town of Baidoa.
March 21-24: The Alliance for the Restoration of Hope and Counterterrorism fights against the extremist Council of Islamic Courts for the first time, leaving 73 people dead in Mogadishu. Aweys accuses the United States of financing the alliance.
May 8-14: The court attacks the alliance in northern Mogadishu, sparking another battle, this time leaving 150 people dead.
June 5: Militias loyal to the Council of Islamic Courts drive the warlords from Mogadishu.
June 30: Osama bin Laden releases a tape calling on Muslims to support the Islamic courts and to open a third front in the war against the United States in Somalia.
Sept. 18: The first suicide bombing in Somali history targets President Abdullahi Yusuf.
Oct. 9: The Council of Islamic Courts declares holy war on Ethiopia.
Dec. 6: The UN Security Council authorizes a regional peacekeeping force for Somalia, but the Islamic courts reject it.
Dec. 19: The first direct fighting between the Islamic Courts and troops from the Somali government and Ethiopia begins.
Dec. 25: Ethiopian jets bomb Mogadishu-area airports.
