Tobin Jones / AMISOM via AFP - Getty Images

A Somali dock worker carries cement unloaded from a ship to a waiting truck at Mogadishu's main port. The aid effort in the war-torn country is shifting toward boosting the economy amid claims it now has a "bright future."

Somalia has long been defined by terrorism, famine, and piracy.

But as the United States this week pledged another $40 million towards its recovery, Somalia's leaders said the country had finally turned a corner in the fight against the al Qaeda-linked militant group, al-Shabab.

“A bright future for Somalia is within touching distance,” Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon proclaimed on Twitter as the U.S. attended a global summit in London to discuss the country’s future.  

Organizers of the conference sought to build upon the new normality creeping into the nation’s capital, Mogadishu. The country that is often referred to as "the world's most dangerous" is not as dangerous as it once was.

Pirates have not successfully hijacked any ships off Somalia's coast in almost a year and a growing sense of security and confidence has been fueled by the relative retreat of al-Shabab, which controlled much of the country until Kenyan forces invaded in 2011.

Somalia is a battleground not only for its own rival factions, but also for the U.S. and its allies in the fight against al Qaeda, which is opening up Africa as a new global front line.

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said the international community should be careful to avoid Somalia becoming a hotbed for radicalism.

"If we ignore it, we will be making the same mistakes in Somalia that we made in Afghanistan in the 1990s. I'm not prepared to let that happen," he told the summit on Tuesday. 

To that end, the U.S. has pumped more than $1.5 billion worth of assistance into the country since 2009, including the $40 million pledged on Tuesday. It is among the countries pledging aid in the hope that stability will encourage security.

The fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 left Somalia without effective central government and awash with weapons.

But there are signs of fragile progress. Airplanes flying in from neighboring Kenya are filled with members of the diaspora returning home after being forced out by hunger and civil war.

Last year, Turkish Airlines decided to start a commercial service from Istanbul. Officials in Mogadishu hope that the city’s beaches might one day attract a significant number of tourists on those flights. 

But Somalia’s renaissance has limits. Mogadishu is still considered too dangerous to host a meeting of world leaders and senior government officials.

Although al-Shabab has been pushed to the outskirts of the capital by foreign peacekeepers, it maintains the ability to strike at its heart.

Mohamed Abdiwahab / AFP - Getty Images

Security surround the area following a suicide attack on a government convoy in Mogadishu on May 5. Around 11 people were killed.

It proved its deadly potential on April 14 when terrorists attacked Mogadishu’s courthouse. A deadly car bomb was detonated in the center of the city a month earlier. On Sunday, a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a convoy carrying Qatari officials, killing at least eight Somalis.

Ahmed Soliman, research assistant at British think tank Chatham House, believes such attacks will become more frequent as al-Shabab tries to disrupt areas it no longer controls.

“Al-Shabab still controls the majority of rural and south-central areas of Somalia,” he said. “The shift toward insurgent attacks could be a sign of weakness – that it has been forced to change tactics and attack areas that it no longer dominates.  But I think it could also play a game of cat-and-mouse with foreign troops by trying to make gains in northern areas just as the troops establish control in south-central areas.”

“It is being kept at bay by international forces under AMISOM [the African Union Mission in Somalia] but that will only last as long as those forces are there. Things are undoubtedly changing, but the jury is still out on whether al-Shabab has been defeated.”

Abdulhakim Haji Faqi, Somalia's defense minister, said his country's forces desperately need military resources. 

"In order to win this war against al-Shabab, we need to get the proper equipment," he said. "We are not asking for air forces, we are not asking for ships, we are not asking for huge military equipment, we are asking only for light weapons and ammunition so that our soldiers can effectively fight."

He added that this was an "international issue," not just a problem for Somalia as extremists from Pakistan, Yemen and Afghanistan -- as well as the U.S., Canada and Britain -- had been operating in the country.

"International organizations based in Somalia are trying to attack neighboring countries in the region and are also trying to cause international problems elsewhere," he said. 

Somalia’s fledgling U.N.-backed government, which took power in September after more than a decade of transitional rule, insists things are looking up – but admits the process will take time.

“Somalia is a country that has been exposed to anarchy for over two decades,” President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told the U.K.’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper in an interview ahead of the summit. “When I was elected I was attacked within two days, and there were suicide bombers in every corner of my hotel. There are threats against me all the time.”

“There is a huge amount at stake in Somalia: the future of this country, the security of the region, the removal of the piracy stranglehold," he added.

The sharp reduction in attacks on commercial ships off East Africa has been driven by a government amnesty for young pirates backed by international military patrols.

Slideshow: Famine strikes East Africa

Dai Kurokawa / EPA

Somali refugees are seeking shelter in Mogadishu and Kenya from extreme drought and hunger in what the UN's refugee agency is calling the worst humanitarian disaster in the world.

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“As long as the international naval presence remains, piracy rates will stay low,” said Adjoa Anyimadu, research associate at Chatham House.  “It’s impressive how much countries have worked together to provide naval protection - China and Russia are among those working in the U.S.-led operation.”

In another potential sign of recovery, Deputy U.N. Secretary-General Jan Eliasson wants to shift aid efforts away from away from humanitarian aid and toward development projects. The U.N. estimates Somalia will need $1.33 billion this year.

The country still faces desperate poverty. More than 200,000 children under 5 are acutely malnourished, and just under half of Somalis live on less than $1 a day.

Millions still live in refugee camps, and that country lacks government structures such as schools, hospitals and sanitation.

"The main reason we have hope now, more than ever .... is we now have a leadership which has a sense of responsibility," Eliasson told Reuters on Tuesday.  "The trend is positive, but it has been interrupted, and it might still be interrupted by sporadic attacks of the nature we have seen. Al-Shabab are still a threat.”

Al-Shabab is blamed not only for causing instability across the Horn of Africa, but for contributing to the famine that struck Somalia between 2010 and 2012. According to a report released last week by the U.S.-funded famine early warning system (FEWSNET) and the United Nations, more than a quarter of a million people died during the crisis.

A peaceful solution to these problems is far from likely. Al-Shabab remains an attractive organization to many in country where youth unemployment is running at about 70 per cent. “Al-Shabab pays its fighters and gives them food,” Soliman noted.

“Several of its commanders are high on the list of the U.S. government list of most wanted terrorists,” so direct peace talks are off the agenda, Soliman said. However, unofficial meetings with Somalia’s government are possible.

There are also problems with the country’s own forces. In a report published Monday, Human Rights Watch said it had documented “serious abuses” by Somali security forces, including the army, police, intelligence agencies, and government-affiliated militia.

“Abuses documented include murder, rape, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, and looting,” the report said. “These abuses were committed with almost complete impunity.”

However, Somalia’s president remains committed to the task ahead. “One thing is very clear…that Somalia is fragmented into pieces,” Mohamud said. “Reversing all that has been happening in the past two decades is a very tedious work that requires some time.”

NBC News' Michele Neubert and Alastair Jamieson and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Mladen Antonov / AFP - Getty Images

Secretary of State John Kerry arrives at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport on Tuesday in his first trip to Russia since taking office. The civil war in Syria will likely dominate his discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Moscow on Tuesday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin for discussions that will include what may be considered problem number one: what to do about the civil war in Syria.

Russia has traditionally been a backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad, while the U.S. has sided with the rebel forces trying to overthrow him, so the issue is certain to be prominent.

A senior State Department official on Monday conveyed a sense of urgency in gaining Russia’s cooperation on Syria, noting that despite Moscow’s formal commitment to a Geneva agreement calling for a political transition in the country, it has done little to work toward that goal.

“We certainly want to try to make another stab at it, to make another effort at it, because events on the ground have become steadily worse,” the official said. “The casualty figures are mounting, the rate of killing has gone up, and ... the situation is adding to instability in the region.”

In a briefing Monday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration was "working with the Russians" and was hopeful that Putin would continue a pattern of backing away from support of Assad.

In February, Russian and U.S. foreign ministers met with opposition coalition leader Mouaz Alkhatib in Munich. Later that month, however, the Syrian National Coalition turned down invitations to meet with diplomats in Washington and Moscow, citing Russia’s support of Assad.

Two months earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had urged a Syrian counterpart to meet with opposition leaders so they could discuss a way to end the brutal civil war, which has killed more than 70,000 people in two years, according to United Nations figures.

And in December, Putin said in a nationally broadcast news conference that “we are not concerned about the fate of Assad’s regime,” seemingly turning his back on a traditional ally.

Still, Russia has repeatedly come under fire from the United States for blocking U.N. Security Council resolutions drawn up to put more pressure on Assad.

“We have been clear in the past about our disappointment with Russia over their opposition to resolutions at the Security Council with regards to this matter, but this is an ongoing conversation,” Carney said Monday.

Washington’s hope lies not only in meetings with Russian leaders but in the increasing international outrage over what is perceived to be Assad’s cruel treatment of Syrians, Carney said.

“We have seen over the course of weeks and months an escalation by Assad of the brutality that is perpetuating on his own people, and we have consistently in our conversations with the Russians and others pointed clearly to Assad’s behavior as proof that further support for that regime is not in the interest of the Syrian people or in the interest of the countries that have in the past supported Assad. “We make that case repeatedly with the Russian government and others, and I’m sure we will continue to do that.”

Related:

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• US official: Syrian rebels not using chemical weapons
• Full Syria coverage from NBC News

The Arab League is open to the possibility of "mutually agreed" land swaps to help find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Qatar’s prime minister said on Monday.

The statement by Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani came after meetings between Arab League representatives and Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington. Vice President Joe Biden also sat in on some of the discussions.

A major sticking point remains, however, in that the Qatari prime minister also said any new borders drawn should be based on the ones that existed in June 1967, before Israel’s Six-Day War claimed more land.

“The Arab League delegation affirmed the agreement should be based on the two-state solution on the basis of the fourth of June 1967 lines, with the [possibility] of comparable and mutually agreed minor swap of land," he said.

The borders have been a point of contention ever since, and Israel has repeatedly rejected the idea of giving up seized land.

But Monday’s language appeared more conciliatory with mentions of any land swaps being agreed upon and the prime minister’s call for “a joint justice and peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis.”

Kerry described the meetings as “very positive, very constructive discussions … with positive results.”

The foreign ministers of Bahrain, Jordan and Egypt were present, as were representatives of Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority. Hamad serves as both prime minster and foreign minister of Qatar.

Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, speaking on Israel’s Army Radio, applauded Hamad’s comments, Reuters reported.

“The news is very positive,” the service quoted Livni as saying. “In the tumultuous world around … it could allow the Palestinians to enter the room and make the needed compromises, and it sends a message to the Israeli public that this is not just about us and the Palestinians.”

Kerry and the delegates also discussed Syria on Monday with United Nations peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

A State Department official said they discussed “assistance to the Syria opposition, including our support to the SMC [Supreme Military Council], and the ongoing efforts to help consolidate moderate elements of the opposition.”

Speaking on behalf of the Arab League, Hamad said, “I think all of us” support the Syrian opposition’s April 20 declaration in Istanbul, which said the rebels would work toward a a free and democratic Syria with “no room for sectarianism or discrimination on ethnic, religious, linguistic or any other grounds.”

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News Analysis

BEIJING -- There was confusion at the China-North Korea border Thursday after Chinese tour operators halted trips into the North.

Wang Zhao / AFP - Getty Images

Two men wait Thursday for dispatch at a customs port in the Chinese border city of Dandong. The largest border crossing between North Korea and China has been closed to tourist groups, a Chinese official said Wednesday.

It wasn't clear whether the instruction to do so came from the Chinese authorities, the North Koreans, or was made by the nervous operators themselves.

But it mirrored a wider confusion over Chinese policy toward Pyongyang, which depends on Beijing for food and fuel, as well as diplomatic support.

As North Korea readies what is thought to be a missile test, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei has spent most of the week deflecting questions with the official line that "all sides" should show restraint and begin dialogue, and that peace and stability are a "shared responsibility."

But in an interview with NBC News he was more forthright about China's growing concern. "We do not want to see chaos and conflict on China's doorstep," he said.

In fact, there are signs that China is rethinking its policy toward the North. President Xi Jinping last weekend told a forum of political and business leaders that no country "should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain." He didn't mention the North by name, but it was pretty clear who he was referring to.

Earlier, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi had told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that Beijing would not allow "troublemaking on China's doorstep," a line repeated in an editorial in Thursday's China Daily.

China also supported the latest UN sanctions that followed North Korea's third nuclear test.

In fact, relations between the two have been souring for some time as Pyongyang has consistently ignored calls by Beijing for restraint.

"To many in Beijing, North Korea is looking less like a strategic asset and more like a strategic burden," said Cheng Xiaohe, associate professor at Renmin University's School of International Studies.

In the past, even when clearly unhappy, Beijing has treated the North with kid gloves because of fear of the North collapsing, and also as a hedge against U.S. power in Asia.

'Little Fatty'
According to leaked 2010 diplomat cables obtained by Wikileaks and posted by newspapers the Guardian and the New York Times, Chinese officials described the regime in the North as behaving like a "spoiled child."

Slideshow: North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong Un

The youngest son of Kim Jong Il succeeded his late father in 2011, becoming the third member of his family to rule the unpredictable and reclusive communist state.

Launch slideshow

Chinese social media, which is as close a barometer of public opinion as you can get here, has in recent days been buzzing with criticism -- not of the U.S., but of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, for leading his country to disaster and the world close to war.

Kim is derided as "Little Fatty" or "Fatty the Third."

One former top U.S. diplomat agrees there are clear signs that China is losing patience with North Korea. Kurt Campbell, the state department's top official for east asia, said there are signs that a relationship once described by Chairman Mao to be "as close as lips and teeth" is wearing thin.

He said this was notable in public statements and private conversations with U.S. officials. Speaking last week at a forum at Johns Hopkins University, he said this had the potential for a large impact on northeast Asia.

What's harder to say is how this growing frustration will be translated into concrete actions to pressure the North.

Cheng of Renmin University noted that in 2003 Beijing turned off the oil supply in order to force Pyongyang to join six-party talks and could use that weapon again.

"If China has political will, China can do something," he said. "China can make a difference."

Secretary of State John Kerry will be taking this up with China's leaders when he is there this weekend.

"China and the U.S. share common interests in peace, stability and denuclearisation," said the Foreign Ministry's Hong Lei. "We hope to work with the U.S. side towards that end."

Significantly, there has so far been no Chinese criticism of the display of U.S. high-tech firepower in the region, which is seen as another tacit condemnation of Pyongyang's antics.

That said, Kerry will no doubt point out, as other officials have done privately, that if China fails to act the result will be an even bigger U.S. military presence in the region and a possible regional arms race -- precisely what China has said it wants to avoid.

Related:

US on missile watch as North Korea celebrates

Full North Korea coverage from NBC News

Slideshow: Glimpses into the hermit kingdom of North Korea

David Guttenfelder / AP

As chief Asia photographer for the Associated Press, David Guttenfelder has had unprecedented access to communist North Korea. Here's a rare look at daily life in the secretive country.

Launch slideshow

Family, friends and State Department colleagues on Sunday were mourning the first death of an American diplomat on duty since Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed in the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11 last year.

Anne Smedinghoff, 25, was one of five Americans killed in a car bomb attack on Saturday in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday. Three of the dead were U.S. service members and the fifth a civilian employee of the Defense Department, Kerry said.

Atia Abawi / NBC News

They had not been named as of Sunday morning.

Several Afghans and four other State Department employees were injured, one critically.

A sixth American civilian working with the U.S. government was killed in a separate attack in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, ISAF said in a statement.

"It's a grim reminder to all of us, though we didn't need any reminders, of how important and also how risky carrying the future is with people who want to resist," Kerry told State Department employees on Sunday during a visit in Istanbul, Turkey.

Smedinghoff, whose business card read "Assistant Information Officer," and the other Americans were traveling in a convoy to southern Afghanistan to deliver textbooks to children in Qalat, Kerry said. 

He'd met the Illinois-native several weeks ago when she worked as his control officer during his recent trip to Afghanistan. He described her as "vivacious, smart, capable."

"There are no words for anyone to describe the extraordinary harsh contradiction for a young 25-year-old woman, with all of her future ahead of her, believing in the possibilities of diplomacy to improve people's lives, making a difference, having an impact" to be killed, Kerry said.

He described Smedinghoff as "a selfless, idealistic woman who woke up yesterday morning and set out to bring textbooks to school children, to bring them knowledge."

Smedinghoff previously served in Venezuela.

In an email to the Washington Post, Smedinghoff's parents said their daughter "was always looking for opportunities to reach out and help to make a difference in the lives of those living in a country ravaged by war."

They added: "We are consoled knowing that she was doing what she loved, and that she was serving her country by helping to make a positive difference in the world."

Smedinghoff's parents, who live near Chicago, said in a statement published by the Chicago Sun-Times that she joined the Foreign Service after college.

"She particularly enjoyed the opportunity to work directly with the Afghan people and was always looking for opportunities to reach out and help to make a difference in the lives of those living in a country ravaged by war," her parents, Tom and Mary Beth Smedinghoff, said.

In comments posted on the newspaper's website, former friends and colleagues expressed grief and disbelief.

"I am a friend and colleague of Anne. We were in Spanish class and served in Venezuela together. Anne was a light in an otherwise dark world. She made a difference to everyone she met," one commenter identified as David C. Grier, said.

Smedinghoff recently helped NBC News coordinate a report on "Buzkashi Boys," the short film nominated for an Oscar starring an Afghan boy who was discovered on the streets of Kabul.

Local Afghan producer Khyber Shinwari described her as "a lovely lady, charming – smiling on her face."

"She was very open and so helpful. So kind," he said. "She was here to help Afghans."

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Zabul attack in a text message Saturday. The assault came just three days after 54 people were killed in another Taliban attack on a courtroom in the western Farah province of Afghanistan.

The United Nations has said civilians are increasingly being targeted this year.

On his first day in office, Kerry said the safety of State Department employees was a top priority, in the wake of the attack that killed Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi. No one has been convicted as of yet.

NBC News' Jamieson Lesko, Kiko Itsaka and Catherine Chomiak, and The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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This story was originally published on Sun Apr 7, 2013 6:04 PM EDT

Ashwini Bhatia / AP

Exiled Tibetan Buddhist monks walk past a banner of photos of Tibetan protesters as they participate in a candlelit vigil organized by the Tibetan parliament in exile in Dharmsala, India, on Thursday.

Chinese authorities detained 70 people in ethnically Tibetan areas Thursday in a bid to crack down on the gruesome spectacle of people setting themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule, state media said.

The operation, the largest of its kind yet reported by Beijing, is part of an intensifying effort to quell the fiery protests. It comes on the heels of a documentary released in China that blames Westerners, particularly Voice of America, for encouraging people to set themselves on fire and then treating those who do as heroes.

Nearly 100 people have set themselves alight since 2009 to protest Chinese rule, and most of them have died from their injuries.

Twelve of the 70 people detained Thursday were officially arrested in connection with self-immolation cases in what China calls the Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province deputy police chief Lyu Bengqian said, according to state media.

Lyu is head of a special police team investigating self-immolation cases. He said efforts would be stepped up to investigate the protests and to "seriously punish" anyone seen as inciting them.

China blames the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader in exile, as well as the West for the increase in self-immolations.

The U.S. State Department has been critical of the recent arrests.

In her Feb. 1 news briefing, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland criticized China's Tibet policies, in particular the heavy sentencing in January of a Tibetan monk and his nephew, who were charged with inciting eight people to set themselves on fire.

"We continue both publicly and privately to urge the Chinese government at all levels to address policies in Tibet -- in Tibetan areas -- that have created tensions and that threaten the distinct religious, cultural and linguistic identity of the Tibetan people."

On Wednesday, Voice of America shot back at China's assertion that it had encouraged Tibetans to set themselves on fire.

"That is totally false," Voice of America Director David Ensor said in a news release. "We do report these tragic stories; we do not encourage these self-immolations, that is wrong."

CCTV, the Chinese state broadcaster, produced and aired a documentary that pointed fingers at Voice of America, which is the U.S. government's official broadcaster overseas.

The program showed a Tibetan man in a hospital bed who allegedly attempted to self-immolate.

Apparently prompted to explain why he had attempted to light himself on fire, the man said, "I did it after watching VOA, I saw the photographs of self-immolators being commemorated. They were treated like heroes."

The documentary also sensationally accuses VOA of employing secret codes to send messages to people inside Tibet.

"That is one of the more amazing parts of the CCTV report," Ensor said. "That suggestion is totally absurd."

VOA is asking that both CCTV and the China Daily retract their reports.

Related:

Documentary alleges US broadcaster incites self-immolations

Resounding silence as Chinese dissident wins US award

Jung Yeon-Je / AFP - Getty Images file

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt speaks during a news conference in Seoul.

The State Department said on Thursday the time was not right for Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and former diplomat Bill Richardson to travel to North Korea.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Schmidt and Richardson would be traveling as private citizens, not representatives of the U.S. government.

"Frankly, we don't think the timing of this is particularly helpful," Nuland told reporters, citing North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket in December. "They are well aware of our views."

People familiar with the plans tell The Associated Press that Richardson, a former governor of New Mexico, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and diplomatic troubleshooter, and Schmidt, a top figure in the U.S. technology industry and a key executive at the world's leading search engine company, could visit as early as this month.

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. North Korea is one of the world's most repressive states, with Internet access limited largely to the most influential officials and media content rigidly controlled.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offers olive branch to South in rare address

Nuland stressed Schmidt and Richardson were not acting on behalf of the United States.

"We are obviously aware of the trip that has been announced," she said, later correcting herself to say that the department was aware of media reports about the trip.

"They are private citizens. They are traveling in an unofficial capacity," she said. "They are not going to be accompanied by any U.S. officials. They are not carrying any messages from us. They are private citizens and they are making their own decisions."

On Wednesday, Google did not directly respond to a question about whether Schmidt was going to North Korea, although a spokeswoman's response suggested a visit would not be for company business.

"We do not comment on personal travel," spokeswoman Samantha Smith said on Wednesday when asked about the AP report.

North Korea said its Dec. 12 rocket launch put a weather satellite in orbit but critics say it was aimed at nurturing the kind of technology needed to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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The assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security has resigned and three other officials have been relieved of duty after a report criticized the State Department over the attacks on U.S. diplomats in Benghazi, Libya, the department said late Wednesday.

State Department spokesperson Victoria J. Nuland confirmed that Eric Boswell had resigned and said three other officials had been relieved of duties pending . Two of the others worked in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and one in the Bureau of Near East Affairs.

Nuland did not name the other three, but a U.S. official told NBC News that one was Charlene Lamb, Boswell’s deputy assistant secretary of state for international programs. Earlier reports had said that Boswell, Lamb and another unidentified official had resigned.

The resignations come after the release of the Accountability Review Board Report on the attacks on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, Libya, which faulted the State Department and specifically the Bureau of Diplomatic Security for "grossly inadequate" security.

Here’s Nuland’s full statement:

"The ARB identified the performance of four officials, three in the Bureau of the Diplomatic Security and one in the Bureau of Near East Asia Affairs.  The Secretary has accepted Eric Boswell's decision to resign as Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security, effective immediately.   The other three individuals have been relieved of their current duties.  All four individuals have been placed on administrative leave pending further action."

President Barack Obama warned Syrian President Bashar Assad Monday that the use of chemical weapons by the regime would be "totally unacceptable."

"The world is watching," Obama said.

"The use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable and if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons there will be consequences and you will be held accountable," he added.

U.S. officials told NBC News that the Syrian regime had ordered Syria’s military chemical corp to “be prepared.” The officials stressed the directive was not an order to use chemical weapons and did not come from Assad directly, but that order and a considerable increase in activity around Syria’s chemical weapons sites have raised serious concerns.

Syrian state television reported that the Syrian Foreign Ministry denied the country had any plans to use chemical weapons, no matter the circumstances.

The U.S. officials say the fear is that Syrians are at least preparing to mix the precursor chemicals for sarin nerve gas that could be used in artillery shells – but acknowledged it’s not clear that process has begun. 

Once the precursors are mixed, the sarin produced has a relatively short shelf life. In artillery shells, the precursors are packed separately inside the shells and “mixed” immediately before or shortly after the shells are fired.

Despite Obama’s warning that if Syria uses chemical weapons, “there will be consequences,” U.S. military forces have not been put on alert or given warning orders to prepare for any possible military action against Syria. According to a senior U.S. official, there are "plenty of assets in the region which could respond quickly.” 

Earlier, the State Department said the "use or proliferation of chemical weapons" in Syria is a red line for the United States and would result in the administration's taking "necessary steps or actions."

"We are concerned about any move that might signal that they are somehow ready to use those chemical weapons on their own people," spokesman Mark Toner said Monday, adding that the U.S. is concerned that Assad's increasingly beleaguered regime might seek to up the ante in the 20-month-old uprising.

When asked if the chemical weapon stockpiles are secure, Toner said the U.S. is monitoring them, but "it is hard to say, in Syria today, that any stockpile of weapons is secure."

The U.S. is talking to the rebels fighting against the Assad regime about how they should secure chemical weapons that may come into their possession, a senior State Department official said.

A senior U.S. defense official said Monday that U.S. and allied intelligence have detected Syrian movement of chemical weapons components in recent days.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said "the world is watching" Assad and said he'll be held accountable for his actions. Carney declined to say what U.S. contingency plans involved.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Slideshow: Syria uprising

/

A look back at the violence that has overtaken the country

Launch slideshow

News analysis

BEIRUT -- The Obama administration’s suggestion this week that it was prepared to sideline the opposition-in-exile Syrian National Council and attempt to handpick more representative leaders at a crucial meeting next week came after months of frustration over the group's dysfunction and ineffectiveness.

Made up of Syrian intellectuals and political exiles, the Istanbul-based SNC has barely been able to coordinate the simplest of tasks, let alone run the opposition against a well-entrenched regime such as Bashar Assad’s.

It has clearly exhausted the patience of the United States.

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the administration was suggesting names and organizations that should feature prominently in any new rebel leadership that is to emerge from a four-day conference starting Sunday in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

"This cannot be an opposition represented by people who have many good attributes but who, in many instances, have not been inside Syria for 20, 30, 40 years," Clinton said during a visit to Croatia.

"There has to be a representation of those who are in the front lines fighting and dying today to obtain their freedom," she said.

Anti-regime activists say at least 36,000 people have been killed since the struggle to oust Assad began 19 months ago.

U.S. officials have watched with concern the SNC’s inability to rally around a common cause.

Syrian opposition wary of US push to coalesce leadership

The members appear incapable of electing a leader that the whole council could agree on. More often than not, they opt for bland technocrats to fill the void.

Lacking a strong leader, the SNC has been ineffectual at inspiring the opposition.

A leaderless revolution
Most importantly, the members of the council have no relevance to the people who are fighting and dying on the Syrian battlefields.

Some of the rebel fighters are former Syrian Army conscripts who defected to the rebels rather than be forced to kill their own. But most are novices to combat.

Former farmers or businessmen, many of these rebels have only the most rudimentary training and are poorly equipped. When asked questions about the SNC, their responses tend to be lukewarm, at best.

These are not rebels caught in the zeal of fighting behind a charismatic leader.

Instead, their unity stems from a hatred of the regime in Damascus -- but little else. The SNC enjoys little influence among them.

There is no genuine leader to rally around. This is a leaderless revolution.

Faiz Amru, a Syrian army general who defected earlier this year, told The Associated Press that any transitional government or body created abroad cannot possibly represent those dying in Syria.

"Everyone is trying to push their own agendas," he said by phone from the Turkish-Syrian border. "The big powers have hijacked the Syrian revolution."

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The West fears that an opposition leadership vacuum would allow the anti-Assad rebellion to tilt toward Islamic radicalism, rather than toward the inclusive, secular and democratic values the SNC claims to uphold.

Anybody traveling through rebel-held areas in northern Syria can easily spot the foreign fighters, driving around under the Islamist black flag.

These men are not Syrian. Some are Libyans, others Chechen. They are all radical in their religious and political beliefs.

So it is unsurprising that the United States has decided to seek an amicable divorce from the SNC. The events of the past year have proved just how fickle a partner they were.

Lessons from Iraq war
The United States also may be applying lessons learned from the Iraq War.

The Bush administration was burned when it put its weight behind Iraqi exiles, such as Ahmed Chalabi, who had little relevance in the eyes of the local population.

Slideshow: The lives of Syrian rebels

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People resisting the army of President Bashar al-Assad in northern Syria cope with loss and prepare for fighting.

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So far, nothing suggests that Syria will be any different.

Attempts have been made in the past to rectify the disunity and make the SNC more relevant.

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But when members of the opposition met in Cairo last June, the results were nothing short of catastrophic. Screaming matches ensued. Nothing of value was decided.

It would have been comic, had the reality in Syria itself not been so tragic.

Slideshow: Behind Syrian rebel lines

Machine guns operated by motorcycle brakes? Get a glimpse at the rebels fighting against Assad's forces in Syria's mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya area.

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US: 'We're not giving them a list’
The State Department has spent the past few months determining which members are worth backing in Doha, but insists it would not issue dictates.

"We're not giving them a list," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner. "Ultimately it's up to the Syrians themselves to make those choices. This is in no way telling them what to do."

Syria warplanes pound rebel strongholds

Muhydin Lazikani, a London-based writer and SNC member, told the AP that Clinton had no right to criticize the SNC at a time when the Obama administration has no clear path for Syria.

"All they try to do is blame the SNC," said Lazikani.

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Mohammad Sarmini, a Turkey-based SNC spokesman, told the AP that the United States, through this new push, is "trying to make up for its shortcomings and impotence to stop the killings and massacres in Syria."

The Obama administration has said it is not providing arms to internal opponents of Assad and is limiting its aid to non-lethal humanitarian assistance.

Progress or paralysis?
Western officials hope that the meetings in Doha, held over five days, would be everything that the Cairo ones were not.

Participants and observers hope the gathering will prove effective in choosing a unified council that is made up of all of Syria’s ethnic and religious groups.

It remains to be seen whether the opposition is able to elect a representative who can serve as the face of the rebellion against the Assad regime. The SNC will be allocated seats on the new council, although they are expected to remain in the minority.

But if the Doha meetings fail, the only certainty will be that Syria’s nightmarish civil war will drag on and the tragic events played out every day throughout the country will continue unabated.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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