Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 27, 1995 TAG: 9502280049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOGADISHU, SOMALIA LENGTH: Medium
With an American-led military coalition poised offshore, the fighting also offered a taste of what U.S. and Italian marines might face in coming days as they guard the withdrawal of the last U.N. soldiers.
``This is a prelude,'' said Army Staff Sgt. Matt Mutarelli of Philadelphia, who came to Mogadishu with other special forces soldiers Feb. 8. ``We've been expecting this.''
About 50 U.S. Army special forces soldiers already are ashore to help the remaining Pakistani and Bangladeshi troops complete preparations to leave under the coalition shield.
The fighting forced the military to cancel a scheduled rehearsal of the retreat Sunday.
A stray mortar shell exploded on the airport tarmac only a few hundred yards from one of two chartered Boeing 747s that arrived Sunday to ferry 920 Pakistani troops back to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.
Somali factions have jockeyed for months for strategic positions near the air and sea ports, expected to be the focus of fierce fighting once the last peacekeepers leave.
Another stray shell, either a mortar or rocket-propelled grenade, hit near the temporary office of the U.N. special envoy to Somalia. No injuries were reported from either explosion.
Stray bullets had American and Pakistani troops and U.N. civilians ducking and staying under cover a good part of the day, but the only injury was to a Somali policeman, who was not believed seriously wounded.
At least one Somali clansman was killed in the fighting that erupted just outside the airport's main gate, and the level of fighting suggested there probably were more casualties.
``An old sergeant major told me you got to watch out for these guys, because they can't shoot too good but they shoot a lot,'' Mutarelli said. ``They have no qualms about squeezing the trigger on anyone.''
Mutarelli said the clans fought on ``technicals,'' small trucks mounted with guns and anti-aircraft weapons.
The Dutch humanitarian group Memisa, one of the few aid groups still operating in the anarchic country, said Sunday that one of its aid workers was shot and seriously wounded in a southwest Somali town. A Somali worker for the group was also hit by a bullet.
The shooting occurred Saturday when eight gunmen burst into the group's offices in Garba Harre, near Kenya's border, where the group ran a hospital.
More than 350,000 people died from disease, starvation and clan warfare before a U.S.-led coalition force arrived in Somalia in December 1992, stopped the looting of relief supplies and began moving food to the needy. The United States turned the humanitarian mission over to the United Nations in March 1993.
Hundreds of Somalis and more than 120 U.N. troops, including 42 Americans, were killed during the U.N. mission. Now it is coming to an end.
``It's sad we're going to leave the country like this. It's no better off than when we showed up,'' said Marine Staff Sgt. Jim Mahoney of Paso Robles, Calif., making his second landing at Mogadishu.
The United States has assembled a seven-nation force of 33 ships, some 24,000 men and women - more than half of them Americans - and about 80 aircraft, including AC-130 gunships, Cobra helicopters and Harrier fighter jets.
About 2,000 American and Italian marines will come ashore in the next few days to form a rear guard for the remaining 2,400 Pakistani and Bangladeshi peacekeepers, the last vestige of a U.N. force that once numbered more than 30,000.
The exact date and time the operation will begin is being kept secret.
``My husband and I will leave, too,'' vowed Halima Achmed, 26, a newly married interpreter and secretary for the U.N. military commander.
``Somalia will again be ruled by the men with guns after this is over. We will have to escape - just as the United Nations is doing.''
by CNB