The Battle of Mogadishu (Somali: Maalintii Rangers, lit. 'Day of the Rangers'), also known as the Black Hawk Down Incident, was part of Operation Gothic Serpent. It was fought on 3–4 October 1993, in Mogadishu, Somalia, between forces of the United States—supported by UNOSOM—against Somali National Alliance (SNA) fighters and other insurgents in south Mogadishu.
The battle took place during the UNOSOM II phase of the UN intervention in the Somali Civil War. The United Nations had initially sent troops to alleviate the 1992 famine, but then shifted to attempting to restore a central government and establishing a democracy. In June 1993, U.N. peacekeepers suffered their deadliest day in decades when the Pakistani troops were attacked while inspecting a SNA radio station and weapons-storage site. UNOSOM blamed SNA leader General Mohammed Farah Aidid and began military operations against him. In July 1993, U.S. forces in Mogadishu conducted the Bloody Monday raid, killing many elders and prominent members of Aidid's clan, the Habr Gidr.[11][12] The raid led many Mogadishu residents to join the growing insurgency against UNOSOM II, and the following month, the SNA began deliberately targeting US forces for the first time. This, in turn, led American President, Bill Clinton to dispatch Task Force Ranger to capture Aidid.[13][14][15]
On 3 October 1993, U.S. forces planned to seize two of Aidid's top lieutenants during a meeting deep in the city. The raid was only intended to last an hour, but morphed into an overnight standoff and rescue operation extending into the daylight hours of the next day. While the goal of the operation was achieved, it was a pyrrhic victory and spiraled into the deadly Battle of Mogadishu.[16] As the operation was ongoing, Somali forces shot down three American Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters using RPG-7s, with two crashing deep in hostile territory, resulting in the capture of an American pilot.[17] A desperate defense of the two downed helicopters began and fighting lasted through the night to defend the survivors of the crashes. In the morning, a UNOSOMII armored convoy fought their way to the besieged soldiers and withdrew, incurring further casualties but rescuing the survivors.[18]
No battle since the Vietnam War had killed so many U.S. troops.[19] Casualties included 18 dead American soldiers and 73 wounded,[20] with Malaysian forces suffering one death and seven wounded, and Pakistani forces two injuries.[21] Somali casualties, a mixture of insurgents and civilians, were far higher; most estimates are between 133 and 700 dead.[18][10]
After the battle, dead American soldiers were dragged through the streets of Mogadishu by enraged Somalis, an act that was broadcast on U.S. television to public outcry. The battle led to the pullout of the U.N. mission in 1995. Fear of a repeat drove American reluctance to increase direct involvement in Somalia and other regions. Some scholars believe that it influenced the Clinton administration's decision not to intervene in the Rwandan genocide, and it has commonly been referred to as "Somalia Syndrome".[22][23][24][25]
^"Anatomy of a Disaster". Time. 18 October 1993. Archived from the original on 18 January 2008. Retrieved 19 January 2008. The International Committee of the Red Cross estimated 200 Somalis had died in the battle, and hundreds of wounded piled into hospitals
^Ohanwe, Augustine C. (31 July 2009). Post-Cold War Conflicts in Africa. Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd. p. 174. ISBN978-1-912234-74-5. Aidid claimed 315 Somalis were killed and 812 wounded, figures that the Red Cross accepted as 'plausible'.
^Peterson, S. (2000). Me against my brother: at war in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda: a journalist reports from the battlefields of Africa. New York: Routledge. pp. 3–166. ISBN0415921988. OCLC43287853.