Word: mogadishu
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...MOGADISHU WAS A PRELIMINARY; BAIDOA WAS the real thing. Some 70 trucks, jeeps and armored vehicles carried U.S. Marines and French Foreign Legionnaires into that town, in the heart of Somalia's famine zone, last Wednesday, as helicopter gunships buzzed overhead. The show of force was meant to tell armed looters: You can't match our firepower, so get lost. So far, Somalia's gangs have shied away from any shoot-outs with the foreign troops. But armed bandits did steal some food that had been delivered under Marine guard to villages near Baidoa, after the Marines left. Gunmen have...
Under the blazing morning sun a hodgepodge of military vehicles falls into sloppy formation on the dunes near the Mogadishu airport. Somali children sneak through shell holes in a wall to beg for food and baksheesh. Marines shoot souvenir snapshots of each other as the convoy slowly takes shape...
...days after the Marines arrived in the coastal capital of Mogadishu, they were finally going out into the countryside where starving Somalis and relief workers alike are eager for their help. The 700-person contingent was headed for Baidoa, a southern Somalian town where famine has hit especially hard; it is there, and in the remote villages beyond, that most of the U.S.'s humanitarian mission will be carried out. It is there too that the conflict between the narrowly conceived objective of safeguarding food convoys and the larger needs of rebuilding a shattered and lawless nation will be played...
...ruins thin out at the eastern end of Mogadishu, which the Marines refer to as "Mog," giving way to a surprisingly green plain where donkeys, cattle and camels graze. The Marines are entering territory they have not yet explored. Sitting on top of their vehicles, they point M-16s toward the thorn trees and foot-high shoots of corn on either side of the road. Hot exhaust fumes coat their faces in soot. Each time the convoy approaches a village, Somalis come out to cheer. "It's unbelievable," says Fisher. "You're expecting them to shoot at you, and they...
...forth. Sergeant Darrell Siler's face twitches when someone mentions the Oct. 23, 1983, truck-bomb attack in Lebanon that killed 241 U.S. servicemen. Had he not been on leave that day, Siler would probably have been killed with his buddies. "There's a lot of places in Mogadishu that remind me of Beirut," he says. His voice cracks. "I hope nothing like that ever happens here. Our rules of engagement are different. There we couldn't fire unless we were fired on, and we had to get permission first. Here we can use deadly force if we feel threatened...