Battle of Mogadiscio (1993)

The battles of Mogadiscio is a battle which proceeded with Mogadiscio the 3 and October 4th 1993 between a unit interarmes of American special forces called Task force To arrange and the militia of various Somali clans, at the time of an attempt to stop a Somali war leader, the general Mohamed Farrah Aidid.

This battle will be traumatisante for the American public opinion, in particular following the diffusion of images televised of corpses of American soldiers drags by cars in the streets of the city. It will become famous with the publication of the book Black Hawk Down: In Story off Modern War of Bowden Mark in 1999 film and especially its adaptation by Ridley Scott in 2001, diffused in France under the title the Fall of the black falcon.

History

Historical context

The Somali civil war

See also: civil History of Somalie#Guerre

The January 26th 1991, the Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre is relieved and is constrained with the exile. Ali Mahdi Muhammad succeeds to him, but the Aidid general wants his share of the spoils. The Somalia sinks in the civil war. The famine makes its appearance because of the lack of means and financial aids, of a prolonged dryness, and will of the war leaders to deprive of food the rival clans.

The operation Restore Hope

The operation Gothic Snake

The troops of the the United Nations not being adapted to carry out the tracking of Aidid, the American command asks for the sending of specialized reinforcements. This operation exceeds the framework of the operation Restore Hope; named Operation Gothic Snake and entrusted to the JSOC ( Special Joint Operations Command ), its command is entirely under American control and escapes that from UNO. The JSOC created a unit interarmes called Task force To arrange (shortened in TF To arrange ) gathering elements of the “Delta Forces”, of the 75th Ranger Regiment , of the 160th SOAR (A), as well as reinforcements of 24th STS of the US Air Force and DEVGRU of the US Navy, placed under the command of the general William F. Garrison, the commander of the JSOC.

Combat of the October 3rd and 4th

Preparation

Dated October 3rd, 1993, the Task force To arrange already carried out six operations against the Aidid general or his lieutenants. They were held without history, making only one slightly injured, but with the successes limited owing to lack of information.

October 3rd, a Somali adviser of the CIA learns to the Americans that an important meeting of the clan of Aidid must join together two of the principal lieutenants of this one, to Omar Salad and Abdi “Qeybdid” Hassan Awale. The meeting takes place in the afternoon, close to the market of Bakara located in a district held by the militia of Aidid, called “the district of the Black Sea”. The American command sets up an operation aiming at capturing the men taking part in this meeting.

The plan provides that the “Delta Forces” will take by storm the building of the meeting and will capture all the men present on the spot, while Rangers make safe the zone around the building. The two units will be héliportés by the helicopters of the 160th SOAR (A).

A terrestrial convoy of humvees and trucks of five tons, carried out by another group of Rangers reinforced Delta and of four SEAL of the DEVGRU, is charged to recover the héliportées troops and their prisoners. The command counts on the effect of surprised and the speed of the troops to take to speed the militia of the district.

The raid

The raid begins shortly after 15:30, and starts by proceeding as envisaged. The Delta capture 24 people in the building, of which Omar Salad, Mohamed Hassan Awale (that the Somali adviser of the CIA had confused with Abdi “Qeybdid” Hassan Awale). The principal tear is that one of the Rangers , Todd Blackburn, falls of a helicopter and fall of more than ten meters height. However, the Somali militiamans, although taken of runs by the surprise attack, react with an unexpected speed and an effectiveness, helped in that by the Americans who spend more time than designed to carry out the junction between the convoy and the héliportées units. Very quickly the two groups undergo heavy shootings; several American soldiers are wounded, and a truck is even put except service by a rocket fire.

Todd Blackburn is transported by members of its group to the convoy, which detaches three humvees to urgently evacuate it at the base of the TF Ranger . These three vehicles undergo shootings heavy during their return, during which the machine gunner of one of the vehicles, the sergeant Dominick Pilla, is killed, and two other Americans are wounded.

Shot down helicopters

Towards 16:20, whereas the remainder of the convoy did not leave the places yet, one of helicopters MH-60 Blackhawk, code Super 6-1 , is touched by a rocket fire. Its rotor of tail reached, the touched helicopter is crushed with some streets of the building-target of the Americans. The American command reacts by sending a unit of rescue initially placed in another helicopter orbiting above the city for a similar case, reinforced with one of the detachments of Rangers héliportés. The pilot and the copilot of Super 6-1 were killed on the blow at the time of the crash landing, but the soldiers in cabin survived. One among them, Daniel Busch, was seriously wounded while resisting around the wreck. One of the MH-6 Little Bird is posed near the wreck and manages to embark Busch and evacuates it towards the American base - he will die before arriving there. Meanwhile, the troops sent reach the place of the wreck and establish a safety zone from where they push back as they can it the militiamans.

The héliportés Rangers and Delta being still with the building-target decide to join the site of crash landing to foot. At the same time, the convoy leaves the zone and also tries to rejoin the site of crash landing. Obstructed by stoppings established with goes-quickly by the Somali, not being able to be guided effectively by the aircraft orbiting above the city, the convoy loses and sudden heavy losses. Towards 17:00, that is to say less than thirty minutes later, the convoy counts three dead, more half of its wounded manpower (of which two will not survive their wounds), and passed twice to height of the street where Super 6-1 was crashé without being able to approach some more, this one being too narrow. Its commander decides to give up and return at the base. The troops having sought to reach the site with foot also meet a too important resistance, one of the Delta being killed. Only a part manages to join their comrades, the other while remaining separated by a street where the volume of fire is such as it is insuperable. On the whole, nearly one hundred soldiers are encircled around the wreck and occupy several contiguous buildings.

Meanwhile, towards 16:40, a rocket touches the helicopter Super 6-4 controlled by Michael During, who is crushed to several hundred meters in the south of the places of the engagements. The TF Ranger does not have almost any more reserves to engage, and called upon the 10th Moutain Division . A convoy made up soldiers of the 10th MANDELEVIUM and vehicles having evacuated Todd Blackburn is sent to its help, but it encounters the same difficulties as the first convoy towards Super 6-1 and cannot reach the wreck of the apparatus of During. Two marksmen of the “Delta Forces”, Gary I. Gordon and Randall D. “Randy” Shughart, charged to protect the wreck from Super 6-4 since another helicopter, go voluntary to be héliportés on the wreck. The order is given after two refusal successive and their helicopter demounting. Both Delta put at the shelter the four team members, wounded but all still alive, and resist vis-a-vis the militiamans who start to tackle the second site of crash landing. Both Delta will resist during approximately an hour but will be killed one after the other. They will be decorated with the Medal off Honor on a purely posthumous basis, decoration which had not been given any more since the Guerre of Vietnam. Michael During, seriously wounded, will be captured and retained captive during eleven days by the Somali before being released. The other team members of the apparatus will be killed in not elucidated circumstances, but most probably on the site even of the crash landing at the same time as Gordon and Shughart. The corpses of the crew of the Deltas are stripped and trailed in the streets, under the cameras of journalists.

The hundred men encircled around the wreck of Super 6-1 are forced to spend the night on the spot. They join together corpses and wounded, except that of the pilot Cliff Wolcott, who is wedged in the wreck.

Including/understanding the need for having armoured tanks, the American command calls upon the soldiers Pakistani and Malayan U.N. force. A convoy joining together four tanks Pakistani, twenty-four armoured tanks Malayan Condor of West German origin charged infantrymen with the 10th MANDELEVIUM, like various vehicles and soldiers of the 10th MANDELEVIUM and the TF Ranger is organized. Leaving towards 23:30, this convoy, separate into two, reached the zones of crash landing to 2:00 of the morning on October 4th. Half of convoy which reached Super 6-1 spends several hours to release the body of Wolcott and to charge the casualties. Towards 5:30, it leaves the places. A score of Rangers and Delta, the last to be embarked, do not find a place in the last armoured tanks of the convoy which started to get under way. Left behind, they prevent the command of the convoy by radio which stops and is joined by “forgotten” which goes up on board after a race of a few hundred meters. The convoy reaches the stage which is used as a basis for the blue helmets Pakistani towards 6:30.

Continuations of the battle

Losses

Americans

18 American soldiers were killed in the combat of October 3rd, and a nineteenth on October 6th, and 84 were wounded.

1: although not having been killed at the time of the combat but two days after the battle, Matt Rierson is often included in the list of the soldiers killed during the battle of Mogadiscio.

Malayan

A Malayan soldier of the 19 battalion of the Rejimen Askar Melayu DiRaja (RAMD, mechanized royal Malayan regiment) was killed in the convoy of rescue:

soldier Chechmate Aznan Awang (promoted corporal on a purely posthumous basis)

Somali

There does not exist precise assessment of the Somali losses, because of the absence of functional State to the head of the country and the chaos generated by the civil war. The data of certain hospitals of Mogadiscio (which were overflowed by the surge of died and wounded) and of ONG make it possible to estimate at least: the 500 dead Somali losses, of which approximately a third would consist of non-combatant. The American ambassador Robert Oakley will declare thereafter that more: 1000 Somali would have been killed in the combat of the October 3rd and 4th.

Continuation

The October 6th 1993, during a televised intervention, the president Bill Clinton announced the end of the operations against Aidid. March 25th, 1994, the near total of the American soldiers left the Somalia. Only a few hundreds of soldiers remained to ensure the withdrawal of the American forces. In March 1995, all the American personnel had left the Somalia.

The 1996, Mohamed Farrah Aidid was killed during a confrontation between rival clans. The Garrison general, ordering the TF To arrange , took his retirement the following day.

See too

the Fall of the black falcon , film of Ridley Scott inspired of the combat of Mogadiscio.

Random links: