Battle of Mogadishu (1993)

For other uses, see Battle of Mogadishu (disambiguation).

Battle of Mogadishu
Part of Operation Gothic Serpent, UNOSOM II, and the Somali Civil War

Super Six-Four, one of the Black Hawks shot down, above Mogadishu
Date3–4 October 1993 (1993-10-03 – 1993-10-04)
(1 day)
Location
Mogadishu, Somalia
2°03′09″N 45°19′29″E / 2.05250°N 45.32472°E / 2.05250; 45.32472 (Mogadishu)
Result

Inconclusive, see Aftermath

Belligerents

 United Nations

Somali National Alliance
Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya
Commanders and leaders
  • Malaysia Khairul Anuar Abd Aziz
  • Malaysia Abd Aziz Abd Latiff
  • Malaysia Abdul Latif Ahmad
Pakistan Ikram ul-Hasan		 Somalia Mohamed Farrah Aidid
Somalia Sharif Hassan Giumale
Somalia Hashi Ali
Strength
160 initial forces
3,000 rescue forces
16 helicopters
4 M48 tanks[1]
30+ Condor/M113 APCs[2]
9 utility vehicles
3 trucks		 1,500 SNA troops
large number of armed civilians and militia[3]
Casualties and losses
United States 18 killed, 84 wounded[4]
Malaysia 1 killed, 7 wounded
Pakistan 2 wounded		 200 killed, 700 wounded (per Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders)[5][6]
315 killed (including 133 SNA troops), 812 wounded (per SNA)[7][8]
300–700 killed (other estimates)[9][10]

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 II—against the forces of the Somali National Alliance (SNA) and armed irregulars of south Mogadishu.

The battle was part of the two-year-old Somali Civil War. The United Nations had initially sent troops to alleviate the 1992 famine, but then began trying to establish democracy and restore a central government. In June 1993, U.N. peacekeepers suffered their deadliest day in decades when the Pakistani contingent was attacked while inspecting a Somali National Alliance weapons-storage site. UNOSOM II blamed SNA leader Mohammed Farah Aidid and launched a manhunt. In July 1993, U.S. forces in Mogadishu raided the Abdi House in search of Aidid, killing many elders and prominent members of Aidid's clan, the Habr Gidr.[11][12] The raid led many Mogadishu residents to join the fight against UNOSOM II, and the following month, Aidid and the SNA deliberately attacked American personnel for the first time. This, in turn, led 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.[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 UNOSOM II 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 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 American 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 its 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]

  1. ^ Neville, Leigh (2018). Day of the Rangers. Osprey Publishing. p. 219. ISBN 9781472824257.
  2. ^ Neville, Leigh (2018). Day of the Rangers. Osprey Publishing. p. 219. ISBN 9781472824257.
  3. ^ Biddle, Stephen (2021). Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691216652.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :22 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Somalia 1991-1993: Civil War, Famine Alert and a UN "Military-Humanitarian" Intervention (PDF). Médecins Sans Frontières. 2013. p. 210.
  6. ^ "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
  7. ^ "Interviews – Captain Haad | Ambush in Mogadishu | 'Frontline'". PBS. 3 October 1993. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  8. ^ Ohanwe, Augustine C. (31 July 2009). Post-Cold War Conflicts in Africa. Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd. p. 174. ISBN 978-1-912234-74-5. Aidid claimed 315 Somalis were killed and 812 wounded, figures that the Red Cross accepted as 'plausible'.
  9. ^ Bowden, Mark (16 November 1997). "Black Hawk Down: A defining battle". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on 1 July 2007. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
  10. ^ a b Dougherty, Martin, J. (2012) 100 Battles: Decisive Battles that Shaped the World, Parragon, ISBN 1445467631, p. 247
  11. ^ Cockburn, Alexander (13 July 1993). "Somalia Slips From Hope to Quagmire: In Monday's attack the peacekeepers looked more like warlords". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  12. ^ Richburg, Keith B. (6 December 1993). "In War on Aideed, U.N. Battled Itself". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
  13. ^ Kaempf, Sebastian (2018). Saving soldiers or civilians? : casualty aversion versus civilian protection in asymmetric conflicts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-65506-4. OCLC 1032810239.
  14. ^ Hirsch, John L. (1995). Somalia and Operation Restore Hope : reflections on peacemaking and peacekeeping. Robert B. Oakley. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press. ISBN 1-878379-41-0. OCLC 32200261.
  15. ^ Cassidy, Robert M. (2004). Peacekeeping in the abyss : British and American peacekeeping doctrine and practice after the Cold War. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. ISBN 0-313-04752-9. OCLC 62329891.
  16. ^ David, Saul (2012). Military blunders : the how and why of military failure. Little, Brown Book. ISBN 978-1-4596-7276-5. OCLC 1194939670.
  17. ^ Bowden 2010.
  18. ^ a b Biddle, Stephen D. (2021). Nonstate warfare : the military methods of guerillas, warlords, and militias. Council on Foreign Relations. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 182–224. ISBN 978-0-691-21665-2. OCLC 1224042096.
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Dos Santos, Sgt. Maj Clayton; Perdue, James (14 February 2022). "Battle of Mogadishu: The Mission Command Perspective". Army University Press. Archived from the original on 14 February 2022. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
  21. ^ UN casualty numbers differ across multiple sources. The following is a brief list for comparison with the UN report taking precedence:
    * United Nations. (1994, February 24). Report of the Commission of Inquiry Established Pursuant To Security Council Resolution 885 (1993) To Investigate Armed Attacks On UNOSOM II Personnel Which Led To Casualties Among Them. Report on p. 32 lists 1 Malaysian killed with 9 Malaysians and 3 Pakistanis wounded.
    * United States Forces, Somalia After Action Report and Historical Overview: The United States Army in Somalia, 1992–1994 (2003). Page 13, the executive summary, lists 2 Malaysians killed with 7 Malaysians and 2 Pakistanis wounded. Page 106, Volume 1 of the After Action Report, lists 1 Malaysian killed with 9 Malaysians and 3 Pakistanis wounded.
    * Marion, F. L. (2018). The Battle of Mogadishu: Special Tactics in Somalia, 1993. In Brothers in Berets: The Evolution of Air Force Special Tactics, 1953–2003 (p. 291). Air University Press. Lists 2 Malaysians killed with 7 Malaysians and 2 Pakistanis wounded.
    * Battle of Mogadishu, Untold Story of Black Hawk Down. (2022, October 29). My Military Times. (Ad hijacking occurring on source's page, google cache used for text-only). Lists 1 Malaysian killed and 9 Malaysian wounded.
    * Jamil, A. (2020). US Rangers Rescue Operation – Mogadishu 3rd October 1993. Bugle and Trumpet, p. 16. Lists 1 Pakistani killed and 1 wounded.
  22. ^ Dauber, 2001.
  23. ^ Patman, Robert G (23 December 2014). "The roots of strategic failure: The Somalia Syndrome and Al Qaeda's path to 9/11". International Politics. 52 (1): 89–109. doi:10.1057/ip.2014.39. ISSN 1384-5748. S2CID 146924848.
  24. ^ "Somalia's deadly lessons". Los Angeles Times. 23 June 2006. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  25. ^ Brunk, Darren C. (2008). "Curing the Somalia Syndrome: Analogy, Foreign Policy Decision Making, and the Rwandan Genocide". Foreign Policy Analysis. 4 (3): 301–320. doi:10.1111/j.1743-8594.2008.00071.x. ISSN 1743-8586. JSTOR 24907305.