1. Black Hawk Down The Battle of Mogadishu

3. Somalia 1980s-1990s Violence in Somalia was on the rise due to various warlords in power. Led to destruction & starvation of Somali citizens The world saw these horrible photos & sent aid but the warlords kept the aid to themselves Pres. Bush committed American troops to the region to both counter the reach of the warlords and to ensure that Somali citizens could be fed.

5. Conflict There was a firefight that left 24 Pakistani UN soldiers dead & the UN passed a resolution that ordered the arrest of those responsible for the massacre. This led them to look specifically to General Aidid, a powerful warlord in Somalia The US committed to hunting down Aidid. A UN administrator requested the use of US Special Forces (Delta Force and Army Rangers) with the sole purpose of capturing Aidid

6. US in Somalia From the beginning intelligence had been poor. Somalia guerillas were gaining numbers & their civilian appearance made identifying friend from foe nearly impossible to Am. Troops The streets in Mogadishu, Somalia were narrow & not well paved which made it easy to block the American forces The people were heavily armed

7. October 3, 1993 US learned of a secret meeting to take place It was suggested and later confirmed that Aidid would be there This presented itself as an opportunity for America troops to seize the warlord The attack would use Rangers, Delta Force, Helicopter gunships, Little Birds, and Black Hawk helicopters while a batch of infantry would be in the streets in armed HUMVEEs and trucks.

8. Mission After the meeting was confirmed US helicopters unleashed some missiles into the building to surprise them and then 120 Delta Forces and Rangers roped down from hovering Black Hawks The streets were full of panicked civilians. Troops captured 24 men non were Aidid. He was not present at the meeting. After the explosion had occurred Somalia militia rounded up as many Aidid supporters as possible and within minutes were armed and marching towards the American’s position.

11. Mission Gone Wrong Somali militiamen fired rockets at three Black Hawks in the air. The rockets brought down one and the other managed to make it back to the American base. The men on the ground in the trucks got into firefights with the civilians. Casualties were mounting as gunners were being injured. Bullet proof glass and armor began to give way from the effects of close combat.

14. Mission Gone Wrong The on the ground convoy was making its way out of the city when the got the call to go to the Black Hawk that got shot down. Minutes later they got the call that another Black Hawk was down. So the convoy split to go to the two crash sites. More casualties mounted from men in the convoys. They realized they needed to get back to HQ before they lost even more men. This left the downed crew and soldiers to defend themselves until they found a way out

16. Nightfall As nightfall approached 90 American soldiers had made their defensive stance near the site of the first crash site Thousands of Somali militiamen closed in all around the ground forces. The survivors were trying to keep the militia at bay while trying to retrieve medical supplies and ammunition from airdrops.

17. Ending UN Quick Reaction Forces were put into action to reclaim the stranded personnel along with some of the remaining Delta Forces and Rangers They made their way into the city, reached the crash sites and rescued the wounded and recovered the dead. By the end of the fighting US casualties were 73 wounded, 18 dead and pilot taken prisoner (he was released after 11 days) Somali deaths were over 500 and over 1000 wounded.

18. Results What started as a peace keeping effort turned into a nightmare mission of survival It was a disaster for American prestige and embarrassment to the Clinton Administration. The gradual withdrawal of US forces from the region gave rise to Osama Bin Laden’s rather incorrect assessment that the American soldier was weak and cowardly. The “Black Hawk Down” incident shaped US policy in the long term and restricted US involvement in humanitarian crisis like Rwanda