
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 23, 1993                   TAG: 9308230082
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: MOGADISHU,SOMALIA                                LENGTH: Short

SOMALIS ATTACK U.S. SOLDIERS

In the third such attack in two weeks, six U.S. soldiers were injured Sunday when a remote-controlled bomb was detonated as their supply truck passed on one of Mogadishu's busiest roads.

The explosion appeared to document what several American commanders serving in key slots of the U.N. operation here have suspected since the first attack killed four Americans Aug. 8 - that militiamen loyal to renegade Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid are deliberately targeting the American contingent in the multinational coalition authorized to restore order in Somalia.

"If you ask me, `Are they targeting Americans?' I would say, `Probably,' " U.S. Army Gen. Norman Williams, deputy commander of the 4,000 American troops serving in the U.N. operation here, said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times last week. "There's very little we can do about these attacks. It's the mines, the explosive devices, that are so hard to deal with."

But although he and other American commanders say it is virtually impossible to defend against such attacks, they insist that the dangerous patrols must continue if the United Nations is to succeed in its mission to pacify and rebuild this ruined nation.

"We have to go on those roads. We can't just sit in the compounds," Williams said in the interview a few days before Sunday's incident, in which the six Americans were only slightly wounded.

The general commands the vast U.S. Army logistics operation that is delivering fuel, water and other military supplies to the coalition force of more than 25,000 troops scattered throughout the capital and the countryside.

by CNB