
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 13, 1993                   TAG: 9307130153
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: NAIROBI                                LENGTH: Medium

SOMALI MOBS KILL 3 PHOTOGRAPHERS AFTER U.S. ATTACK

Mobs shot, beat and stoned to death three news photographers in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, Monday after a U.S. aerial attack on an outlaw warlord's stronghold in which at least 13 Somali militiamen were reported killed.

Several other journalists were wounded in the street melee, and one newsman was missing and presumed dead. A U.N. spokesman said 13 Somali militiamen were known to have died in the raid and 11 others were wounded. A spokesman for warlord Mohamed Farrah Aideed's militia claimed that more than 70 had been killed in the assault. Aideed, who has been held responsible for bloody attacks on U.N. personnel, has remained at large despite a U.N. order for his arrest.

Monday's mob violence was the first directed specifically against foreign journalists in two years of strife. Hansjoerg Krauss, a German photographer with The Associated Press, was confirmed dead, along with Hosea D. Maina, a Kenyan, and Dan Eldon, a British-born resident of Kenya, both photographers for the Reuter news agency.

Monday's violence underscored the deteriorating security situation in war-torn Mogadishu, where thousands of United Nations troops are garrisoned in their compound and unable to guarantee safety on the streets. As Mogadishu slides further toward full-scale guerrilla war, anger among many Somalis toward foreigners has been growing.

In the past week, U.N. troops and Somali employees of the United Nations have been attacked and killed in what were once considered the safest parts of the city - the port, the airport and the main road in front of the U.S. Embassy compound. Violence also has occurred on the embassy's protected grounds, where four Norwegian peace-keepers were wounded over the weekend by a rocket grenade launched over the wall.

U.N. forces have responded with selective air attacks on suspected militia positions and snipers' hideouts. But the U.N. troops have retreated to their compound, leaving journalists, aid workers and other foreigners unprotected.

Barrie Walkley, U.N. spokesman in Somalia, confirmed by telephone that Reuter photographer Eldon had been beaten to death. AP photographer Krauss was found dead, his body riddled with bullets and his head smashed with stones, Walkley said. Reuter photographer Maina was believed stoned to death.

A Kenyan sound man for Reuter television, Anthony Macharia, was missing and presumed dead.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB