US Warships off the Coast of Somalia

In 1992, after 18 American solders were killed in Mogadishu, the US pulled out of Somalia, and United Nations operations were scaled down. After 15 years of bloody chaos, the so-called Islamic Courts Union movement established some order, but now it is being driven out by forces from neighboring Ethiopia. American warships are on patrol off the coast on the eastern horn of Africa to prevent escape by sea for Islamic militiamen driven out of the capital by Ethiopian troops and jet fighter planes.