THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 28, 1995 TAG: 9502280285
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: MOGADISHU, SOMALIA LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
Waves of U.S. Marines in amphibious vehicles swept into this beleaguered capital early today, opening the final act of the failed two-year United Nations effort to save Somalia from itself.
Under a moonless sky at midnight, nearly 800 Marines in the first wave tramped across two landing sites - a beach in south Mogadishu and the city's harbor - before rolling to defensive positions overlooking the airport and port.
They are part of a 14,000-strong force sent to form a protective cordon around 2,400 U.N. troops as they withdraw from Somalia after a frustrating 21-month attempt to restore democracy to this east African nation. The peacekeepers are Pakistani and Bangladeshi.
No injuries were reported. Mogadishu appeared calm this morning after intense clan fighting on Sunday and heavy weapons fire Monday afternoon in the Bermuda district near the seaport.
``At this stage of the game, everything is going extremely well. Everything's quiet,'' said Marine Lt. Gen. Anthony Zinni, commander of the task force charged with extracting the U.N. forces.
By 8 a.m. (midnight Monday EST), about 1,800 Marines and 350 Italian soldiers were expected to be ashore in nine waves. As successive waves disembarked through the early morning, the landing force moved immediately into prepared fortifications along a 2 1/2-mile line of sand dunes paralleling the Indian Ocean.
U.S. planners hope the allied task force will be here no more than 72 hours. Among uncertainties affecting the final pullout timetable are the extent to which Somali looters interfere with the military operation and the speed with which the last two ships can be loaded.
Rear Adm. Lee Fredric Gunn, commander of an international naval flotilla supporting the operation, said the Marines should be in the country three or four days.
``It might even be shorter than that,'' he added.
Gunn discussed the operation during a telephone interview from the Belleau Wood, a U.S. amphibious assault ship involved in the operation.
Gunn said the speed of the operation depends on the smooth arrival of ships that the U.N. has chartered to remove assault vehicles, tanks and other equipment used by the peacekeeping forces.
Somali attacks on the U.N. forces and the troops who have come in to cover them are considered unlikely, Gunn said. But there is a concern that those forces could be hit by stray bullets or caught in cross-fires among Somali factions battling in the area.
The airport and seaport facilities from which the U.N. forces are embarking are among the most prized locations in Mogadishu, so the warring clans are jockeying for advantage in what is expected to be a deadly struggle after the foreign troops depart.
Many of the Somalis are carrying automatic weapons, grenades, and other arms, as are most of the incoming Marines. But some of the American troops will be packing pepper gas, ``stinger'' grenades that scatter hard rubber pellets rather than shrapnel, and guns that dispense a sticky foam to immobilize attackers.
The troops understand that the nonlethal weapons, developed for police use in the United States, are to augment rather than replace their conventional arms, Gunn said.
``It's clear to our troops if they are the recipient of a hostile act . . . they are to respond and they should use lethal force,'' he added.
Command of the operation is to be formally transferred this morning from Lt. Gen. Aboo Samah of Malaysia, the current U.N. commander here, to Gen. Zinni, who commands the 14,000 troops involved in the final pullout.
The arrival of the Marines, who are the centerpiece of the seven-nation extraction mission known as Operation United Shield, marked their second landing in Somalia in 27 months. In early December 1992, a U.S. force spearheaded Operation Restore Hope, a humanitarian mission intended to end a civil-war-triggered famine that had claimed more than 300,000 lives.
Six months later, the Marines pulled out and were succeeded by the United Nations Operation in Somalia, which immediately found itself in a guerrilla war against clan leader Mohamed Farah Aidid, leader of the Somali National Alliance.
Shortly after dawn today, the peacekeepers are scheduled to begin leaving through the U.S. lines. Bangladeshi soldiers are expected to immediately board a ferry and a passenger ship now waiting in the port. The Pakistanis, some of whom have been in Somalia for well over a year, on Wednesday will load 70 tanks and armored personnel carriers onto ships before themselves embarking.
U.S. and U.N. officials sought to put in a positive light renewed Somali efforts to revive Mogadishu's ineffectual police force and establish a port authority. Zinni said that some Somalis had offered to establish a security ``buffer'' around the airport by pulling back heavy weapons from the perimeter fence; Zinni has asked that threatening weapons, particularly the machine-gun-mounted trucks known as ``technicals,'' be kept out of sight until the withdrawal is complete.
``I think you're seeing a little order on the Somali side,'' Ambassador Dan Simpson, U.S. special envoy to Somalia, told reporters on the Belleau Wood. Added Zinni, ``And in the context of the next few days, a little order is better than none.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
An advance team patrols the airport Monday before the main landing.
Graphic
MISSION AT A GLANCE
WHY THE U.S. FIRST WENT IN: As part of an international effort in
December 1992 to protect food aid from marauding bandits.
WHY THE U.S. LEFT: Entanglement in factional disputes, especially an
October 1993 battle in which 18 U.S. Rangers were killed and a
photograph of a crowd dragging a Ranger's body though Mogadishu
shocked Americans. U.S. troops left in March 1994.
WHY THE U.S. RETURNED: To protect the withdrawal of the last 2,400
Pakistani and Bangladeshi peacekeepers. U.S. troops make up more
than half of the 14,000 international force. The total cost of the
mission: $1.66 billion.
Photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
U.S. Marines aboard the amphibious assault ship Belleau Wood clean
their rifles, preparing to land Monday in Mogadishu, Somalia. The
Marines are a part of a 14,000-member force that will protect 2,400
U.N. troops as they withdraw.
KEYWORDS: SOMALIA by CNB