US looks at diplomatic presence in Somalia

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) The United States is considering whether to have a diplomatic presence in Somalia, where Islamists were ousted from the capital at the end of last year, the State Department said.

The United States has not had a presence in Somalia since 1994 after a failed UN intervention which began as a military food-aid effort in 1992. The US withdrawal came after the killing of US troops in Somalia in late 1993, which was depicted in the movie ''Black Hawk Down.'' Since then, the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, has been responsible for handling Somalia.

''We are considering what it is our posture should be in terms of physical presence in Somalia,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday.

He said the United States was taking security issues into consideration and no final decisions had been taken yet. ''It's something that's being actively examined right now,'' McCormack added.

In a two-week war over the New Year, Somalia's transitional government, backed by troops and weapons from Ethiopia, drove out Islamists who had controlled Mogadishu and much of the south for six months.

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