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- <text id=93TT2317>
- <title>
- Jan. 18, 1993: Shootout in Mogadishu
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- Jan. 18, 1993 Fighting Back: Spouse Abuse
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK
- WORLD, Page 19
- Shootout in Mogadishu
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>As diplomats meet, U.S. forces take the offensive against bandits
- </p>
- <p> Mogadishu, no stranger to the pop-pop of isolated rifle fire,
- suddenly shook from the thunderous roar of a full-scale
- military assault. For 20 seemingly endless minutes, U.S. forces
- directed a massive array of firepower from AH-1 Cobra attack
- helicopters, M1A1 Abrams tanks and amphibious assault vehicles,
- all aimed at two arsenals controlled by warlord General Mohammed
- Farrah Aidid in the Somali capital's northwest. The offensive
- was ostensibly in retaliation for sniper fire at U.S. troops,
- but the blazing-gun approach carried a clear warning to
- Somalia's increasingly bold gunmen that they continue to lurk
- and menace at their peril. Perhaps 21 Somalis were killed in the
- confrontation, the bloodiest since Operation Restore Hope began
- five weeks ago.
- </p>
- <p> Aidid also figured prominently in last week's diplomatic
- developments. His supporters were widely believed to have
- organized a stone-throwing demonstration against the visit of
- United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to
- Mogadishu. The warlord was equally obstreperous at the start of
- a U.N.-sponsored meeting involving no fewer than 14 feuding
- Somali factions, held in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.
- But he and other participants eventually agreed to a cease-fire
- scheduled to take effect this week and a formal "reconciliation
- conference" in March.
- </p>
-
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
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