Word: aidid
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...started with an assault on Pakistani U.N. peacekeepers in Mogadishu and escalated into a bombing campaign against the attack's instigator, Somali warlord Mohammed Farrah Aidid. Finally, U.N. troops stormed Aidid's stronghold, forcing him to flee, and to remain separated from most of his supporters. Five U.N. troops and over 100 Somali militia were killed; 46 peacekeepers and more than 100 Somalis were wounded...
...Commander in Chief who had never led his troops into battle, Bill Clinton anguished not at all over ordering the raids. Washington had been annoyed at Aidid's resurgence for some time. Less than 24 hours after the U.N. peacekeepers were slain, Clinton gave the Pentagon his go-ahead. The White House took its first military action in stride, as if to create an aura of quiet competence around the President. Clinton did not personally address the issue until his Saturday radio talk, when he declared that U.S. and coalition troops had "successfully attacked" Aidid's positions and struck...
...troops, but some 4,000 were still in and around Mogadishu when gunmen struck at the Pakistani peacekeepers. They were angered by the viciousness of the assault on the peacekeepers. Gunmen had used women and children as human shields, and mutilated the corpses of the fallen Pakistanis. Aidid hardly showed remorse. A few days prior to the U.S. raid he blamed the U.N. for provoking the lethal firefight. "Unfortunately," he boasted, "I have no power or authority to arrest them...
...attacks proved relatively painless. They were fast, accurate, and there were no allied casualties. But beyond venting anger at the U.N. killings, it was hard to see that Washington had moved much closer to cleaning up Somalia. Pentagon officials told TIME that a follow-up % attack on Aidid's stronghold in the city of Galkaio will soon follow. Until and unless the warlord is captured, Clinton will be unable to call it a mission accomplished...
...struck back at the forces of General Mohammed Farrah Aidid in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. The raids, the first of which began shortly before dawn on Saturday, were in retaliation for a series of attacks on June 5, in which 23 U.N. peacekeepers were killed. In his regular Saturday-morning radio broadcast, President Clinton said that the action was "essential to send a clear message to the armed gangs." That message was pounded home shortly after midnight on Sunday when a second air assault fired on an area near Aidid's private compound...