Casualties Somalia

Residents of the Hammer Jadiidi district had just finished a day of fasting when the first shots rang out. Witnesses said the ensuing firefight, involving American troops, left three people dead and two wounded. The soldiers were accused of shooting indiscriminately in the Friday night incident and fleeing without helping the injured, including a 12-year-old boy who was hit twice in the back. But U.S. officials defended the patrol, saying one of its two vehicles was hit several times.

The White House on Saturday condemned the deadly downing of a U.S. helicopter over Mogadishu but, anticipating new criticism from Capitol Hill, strongly reaffirmed its commitment to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Somalia.

Five Somalis working for Cable News Network were killed and four wounded Friday in a three-hour battle between rival clansmen in Mogadishu. It was some of the heaviest clan fighting in months and climaxed a second day in which U.N. peacekeepers were attacked. U.N. officials said that at least 27 mortar shells or rocket-propelled grenades were fired at U.N. positions Friday and that Pakistani soldiers were fired on again while clearing roadblocks. No U.N. casualties were reported.

The last, violent minutes of Awil Hersi Salawaad's life illustrate what has become of the good intentions of the foreign military intervention in Somalia. Salawaad, 65, chief security officer for CARE International here, left the food distribution agency just before noon Monday to buy water from a sidewalk vendor and pick up some medicine at a pharmacy. At the pharmacy door, Salawaad was killed by machine-gun fire from a passing patrol of Malaysian U.N.

At least five more American soldiers were killed and 24 others wounded during U.N. military operations in Somalia on Sunday--a toll that seemed certain to intensify pressures for the withdrawal of U.S. troops there. The casualties came during another major U.N. military sweep in the area of south Mogadishu, the Somali capital, that traditionally has been controlled by fugitive warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid.

The outlines of the military mission that the United States has volunteered to undertake in war-ravaged and famine-imperiled Somalia are now clearer, following initial U.N. Security Council consideration of plans for international intervention. Clearer, too, are the risks of that mission. American forces, in division strength or greater, would not only take control of ports, airfields and roads so that food could be moved to those facing starvation.

nairobi, kenya -- Two well-known journalists were killed Saturday in Somalia in separate but related strikes, the latest in a string of attacks targeting independent media outlets in the Horn of Africa country. Mahad Ahmed Elmi, a popular talk show host on Capital Voice, an FM station owned by HornAfrik Media, was shot in the head three times by masked men as he walked to work, witnesses said. Hours later, as colleagues drove home from Elmi's funeral, a roadside bomb targeted the procession.

U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali refuses to let the genocide in Rwanda go unchallenged. He scolds the West for not responding to the crisis. He chides Africa for not sending more troops to stop the killing. It's a good use of his international bully pulpit. Though he met Friday with President Clinton, Boutros-Ghali can't drum up the political support he did when he finally persuaded George Bush and other nations' leaders to send troops to Somalia.

Last week Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole was among the congressional leaders who wisely fought to keep Congress from limiting President Clinton's foreign-policy options in Somalia. Yet what a difference 48 hours make. On Sunday the Kansas Republican announced that he will introduce legislation that could have just such an effect on the President's options in Haiti. What gives? PRIORITIES OVER POLITICS: Not only is Dole's latest move inconsistent, it suggests he has things backward.