(국제) 소말리아 모가디슈, 미국 재 개입?
(국제) 소말리아 모가디슈, 미국 재 개입?
In news from overseas tonight, the long-running civil war in Somalia heated up even more today. A rebel group with ties to Al Qaeda says it intends to attack the presidential palace, home of the US-backed government there. This comes after the group seized much of the capital city of Mogadishu. Somalia has been out of the news for a while, but everybody's about to learn all over again why many people call the Horn of Africa the most dangerous place in the world. Our chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel is one of the few Western journalists to report from there. Tonight, the first of his two reports.
After 19 years without a functioning government, Somalia is in ruins. The 5,000 African peacekeepers here are overwhelmed. As we watched, the peacekeepers set up a new base in what was once Mogadishu's finest hotel. The colonel in command says he needs thousands more soldiers just to fend off막다 Al Qaeda inspired militants called the Shabab that have taken over half of Somalia. “Biggest problem is lack of troops, lack of soldiers? Yeah. Yeah.”
But Washington won't likely be sending any troops. Not again. In 1993, US forces invaded to stop clan warfare종족분규. American helicopters were shot down, soldiers' bodies dragged through the streets, the events retold in the film "Black Hawk Down." Since then, Somalia has degenerated악화 into the world's worst failed state and an Al Qaeda safe haven. So quietly reluctantly, the US is ramping up증대 its involvement here again.
The US bankrolled the African peacekeepers with $180 million over the past two years and shipped the weak, often unpaid Somali army 94 tons of weapons and ammunition last year. And American weapons are now in action in Somalia under the cover of darkness. At night, we've been hearing the unmistakable sound of American drones circling in the sky over Mogadishu. They seem to be flying very low and make passes every 10 to 15 minutes.
American drones searching because Al Qaeda's Somali branch has attracted American citizens,
and, for the first time ever, American suicide bombers. 17 peacekeepers were killed when this headquarters was attacked by a suicide bomber last September. But what happened here has direct ties to the United States. Militants identified the bomber as a Somali-American who’d been living in Seattle. US counterterrorism officials tell NBC News around 50 Americans, most of them of Somali origin, have come here to fight.
Some were recruited by this man, a 26-year-old from Alabama named Omar Hamammi, who uses Internet videos and rap songs to attract fellow Americans. “Our response is martyrdom순교 or victory.” The foreign connection is a source of pride for a Shabab commander we interviewed. Al Qaeda members are our Muslim brothers. We don't call them foreigners, he says. They're welcome here.
The CIA and FBI worry Americans trained in Somalia could return to attack the United States.
“You have a combination of capability and intent on the part of an adversary.
Capability to strike the United States because they have Americans in country. And intent, they've talked about coming after us.”
As Somalia becomes a springboard for Al Qaeda that the US has once again been forced to confront.
Richard Engel, NBC News, Mogadishu.