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- <text id=93TT1133>
- <title>
- Mar. 08, 1993: The U.S.'s Honeymoon Is Over
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- Mar. 08, 1993 The Search for the Tower Bomber
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 18
- WORLD
- The U.S.'s Honeymoon Is Over
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>Coalition forces face the reality of Somalia's convoluted conflict
- </p>
-
- <p> Just as Americans were laying plans to part company on the best
- of terms, the scene in Somalia turned nasty. On Wednesday demonstrators
- set up burning roadblocks along the main thoroughfares in Mogadishu
- and pelted passing U.S. servicemen with chunks of concrete.
- Banners paraded past the Marine base at the old American embassy
- read THIS IS SOMALI SAND NOT AMERICAN SAND. Later in the week,
- fierce fire fights erupted in several parts of the city between
- UNITAF (Unified Task Force) troops and Somalis thought to be
- loyal to General Mohammed Farrah Aidid, leaving five American
- servicemen and two Nigerians injured and an estimated 10 Somalis
- dead. The unrest, the most violent involving UNITAF troops since
- Operation Restore Hope began in December, was triggered by the
- takeover of the southern port town of Kismayu by gunmen loyal
- to General Mohammed Said Hersi, a.k.a. "Morgan." His men reportedly
- crept into Kismayu Monday night and opened fire on the militia
- of Omar Jess, a local warlord with close ties to Aidid. Angered
- that American forces in the town allowed this to happen, Aidid
- accused them of engineering the attack and called for widespread
- demonstrations against the foreign force. Relief operations
- in the capital ground to a halt as aid workers confined themselves
- to their heavily guarded compounds after the fatal shooting
- of an Irish nurse earlier in the week.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-