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- THE WEEK, Page 14WORLDInto Somalia's Zone of Death
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- Troops reach famine-struck Baidoa, but the looters still lurk
- nearby
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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 reappeared on the streets of
- Mogadishu too, indicating that the U.S.-led forces may have to
- get more aggressive about disarming the gangs.
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- Help is on the way. About 30 nations have now pledged
- contributions to the Somalia mission, possibly bringing the
- total force to 50,000. Even the German government says it can
- constitutionally send 1,500 troops -- though to hand out food,
- not shoot. Even so, there are guarded hints that some U.S.
- forces will still be in Somalia a year from now.
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