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

DATE: MONDAY, October 4, 1993                   TAG: 9310040079
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From the Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SOMALIS KILL AT LEAST 5 U.S. TROOPS

The Pentagon had few details on the American casualties, other than to confirm the deaths. Officials said that at least 24 American soldiers were wounded, and two Army Black Hawk UH-60 helicopters had been "lost in action."

They gave no names of the dead or wounded soldiers, nor did they say whether the helicopters had been downed by shoulder-held antiaircraft missiles or had crashed for some other reasons. More reports were expected later.

U.S. Defense Department officials also declined to disclose the identity of the Aidid aide, except to say he was a top official in the Somali National Alliance, Aidid's political organization.

Earlier Sunday, a Somali U.N. employee was killed and three U.S. Marines were wounded when a mine explosion ripped through their military vehicle in Mogadishu, a U.N. spokesman said.

Aidid says the U.N. troops have become an unwanted occupying force. Some U.S. lawmakers have called for a pullout of U.S. troops.

In the Somali sweep, U.S. officials said the troops also captured 19 other members of Aidid's organization, who presumably were among the militiamen who had fired on American and U.N. forces.

The operation was continuing into early today.

President Clinton, in California where he is lobbying for his health care plan, offered his sympathies to the families and friends of the dead soldiers, saying they were "engaged in a vital humanitarian mission" designed to restore security in Mogadishu and prevent a resumption of the starvation that prevailed before U.S. forces arrived there in December.

At the same time, however, in a clear reference to Aidid's continuing attacks, the president warned that the achievements of the U.S. intervention "must not be lost because of the willingness of a few to reject the peaceful political process and seek to achieve power by force."

The latest round of setbacks, though, seemed likely to heighten pressure in Congress for the United States to pull its forces out of Somalia in the face of increasing American casualties in Mogadishu.

The Senate demanded last month that the White House submit a detailed exit strategy for the American military effort in Somalia by Oct. 15 or face a possible cutoff of funds for the operation.

On Sunday, Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., told an audience on CBS' "Face the Nation" program that the United States should "leave now" or face possible action by Congress.

And Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell, D-Maine, speaking later in the day on Cable News Network, said he believed that Sunday's incidents "clearly will increase the voices [in Congress] demanding withdrawal."

Keywords:
FATALITY