Mohammed Farah Aidid

In the largest single loss of American life since the international community went to Somalia's rescue last December, four U.S. soldiers died Sunday when gunmen ambushed a U.N. peacekeeping convoy in Mogadishu. President Clinton pledged to take "appropriate action" against those responsible. The soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit a land mine in southern Mogadishu and the convoy in which they were riding came under attack.

The signature line of President Obama's June 22 Afghanistan address was "America, it is time to focus on nation-building here at home. " This no doubt resonates among an electorate sick of foreign wars and eager to focus on domestic problems, but it is a wrongheaded statement. Whenever America has eschewed commitments abroad and turned inward, the results have been disastrous. The most isolationist decade in the country's history — the 1930s — was followed by World War II. The "Come Home, America" isolationism of the 1970s was followed by the fall of South Vietnam, the genocide in Cambodia, the Iranian hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Dawn breaks here to helicopter thunder, the jarring wake-up call of low-flying U.S. Black Hawk spotters scouring the lethal and broken streets. Below is a war-tattered tapestry now besieged by bandits, thugs and the militia of a man on the run. The choppers buzz rickety markets of looted timber and tin. They zip at the treetops over merchants armed with knives and guns who open at daybreak to hawk soap, scrap, stolen food and other staples to 2 million Somalis exhausted from years of fear.

In Somalia, he may be a feared warlord. But back home in the San Gabriel Valley, Hussein Mohammed Aidid was a $9-an-hour municipal clerk, a part-time college student and a corporal in the U.S. Marine Reserve, who as of Wednesday was absent from his Pico Rivera artillery unit. On Sunday, Aidid, 34, replaced his late father, the notorious strongman Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid, as leader of one of Somalia's dominant warring factions, the United Somali Congress-Somali National Alliance.

U.S. Army Rangers captured 17 suspected fighters for fugitive warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid during a raid on a walled compound Tuesday. About 50 of the elite soldiers stormed a dozen buildings and traded gunfire with Somali guards. Two unidentified Rangers suffered superficial wounds in the airborne assault and were treated and released from military hospitals.

Commercial flights were barred from Mogadishu's airport after U.N. commanders learned warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid may be planning to use antiaircraft missiles. Aidid is believed to have Stinger ground-to-air missiles captured during the overthrow of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre early in 1991. U.N. spokesman Maj. David Stockwell said the restriction will probably remain in effect until Aug. 28.

The Security Council on Tuesday called off the hunt for Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid and set up a new special commission to investigate armed attacks against U.N. personnel in the African state. All 15 members voted for a resolution that marked a change of direction in Somalia, backtracking from an arrest warrant that held Aidid responsible for the June slaying of 24 Pakistani peacekeepers. In practice, the hunt for Aidid stopped after President Clinton reversed U.S. policy last month.

Fourteen foreigners, including two Americans, freed by Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid's forces in the southwestern city of Baidoa arrived in Nairobi on Friday, and a U.N. official said no ransom had been paid. Two planes carrying the freed men, who spent nearly six days in captivity, arrived in the Kenyan capital Friday evening. Seven female aid workers had been released Wednesday. The captives were taken after Aidid and 600 of his militiamen overran Baidoa on Sunday in a surprise attack.

An alliance of Somali factions opposed to Mohammed Farah Aidid offered to negotiate with the clan leader, adding that he must first disarm his militia. The 12 factions also demanded that Aidid recognize U.N.-supported district and regional governing councils before entering talks on a political settlement. Hoping to encourage such a deal, the United States will tie a $100-million aid donation to Somalia to progress in the negotiations. The donation will be formally announced Nov. 29, U.S.

The United Nations released nine Somali detainees in Mogadishu, the first freed since a Security Council resolution suggested that all the detainees would be freed. The nine were "low-level" members of Somali strongman Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid's Somali National Alliance faction, and were released for lack of evidence, said Dave Stockwell, the U.N. military spokesman.

In Somalia, he may be a feared warlord. But back home in the San Gabriel Valley, Hussein Mohammed Aidid was a $9-an-hour municipal clerk, a part-time college student and a corporal in the United States Marine Reserve, who as of Wednesday was absent from his Pico Rivera artillery unit. On Sunday, Aidid, 34, replaced his late father, the notorious strongman Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid, as leader of one of Somalia's dominant warring factions, the United Somali Congress-Somali National Alliance.

Thousands of weeping mourners lined the streets of south Mogadishu as the body of Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid, who defied U.N. peacekeeping forces three years ago and ultimately frustrated efforts to quell Somalia's civil war, was moved from a mosque and buried at his home. The powerful faction leader died late Thursday of battle wounds suffered last week. He died at his home in Mogadishu, the war-battered capital of the East African country.

Somali faction leader Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid has died, his radio station reported. The radio, broadcasting from the southern half of the capital that Aidid controls, said Aidid died of a heart attack. It said he would be buried in the capital, Mogadishu, today. Aidid, the main faction leader in Somalia, was the target of a manhunt by U.S. troops during a U.N. peacekeeping mission to Somalia in 1993. The troops never caught him, and 18 U.S.

Fourteen foreigners, including two Americans, freed by Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid's forces in the southwestern city of Baidoa arrived in Nairobi on Friday, and a U.N. official said no ransom had been paid. Two planes carrying the freed men, who spent nearly six days in captivity, arrived in the Kenyan capital Friday evening. Seven female aid workers had been released Wednesday. The captives were taken after Aidid and 600 of his militiamen overran Baidoa on Sunday in a surprise attack.

Crusted with garbage, festooned with litter, knee-deep in rusting junk, scavenged by packs of wild dogs, blown by dirty sand and scorched by unforgiving sun, a small part of this nation was given back to Somalis on Wednesday. And they were happy to have it. Some slipped in early and hid overnight in abandoned boxes. Hundreds more assembled outside the fence. Then, at dawn, as U.N. tanks retreated from the Mogadishu airport, Somalis swarmed in for a frenzy of looting and gunfighting.

Somalia peace talks collapsed Sunday, and faction leaders went home, raising the risk of the country's abandonment by world donors who have warned that continued fighting could lead to an aid cutoff. Meanwhile, in Washington, Secretary of Defense Les Aspin said Sunday that the United States will withdraw about 2,500 of its 8,200 troops in Somalia by Christmas. "Between a quarter and a third of them will be out of the country" by Dec. 25, Aspin said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Somali faction leader Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid has died, his radio station reported. The radio, broadcasting from the southern half of the capital that Aidid controls, said Aidid died of a heart attack. It said he would be buried in the capital, Mogadishu, today. Aidid, the main faction leader in Somalia, was the target of a manhunt by U.S. troops during a U.N. peacekeeping mission to Somalia in 1993. The troops never caught him, and 18 U.S.

Army Gen. William Garrison, who led the effort to capture Somali clan leader Mohammed Farah Aidid, told President Clinton that he accepts responsibility for the failed mission and the deaths of 18 Americans in an Oct. 3 battle in Mogadishu, congressional and Pentagon officials said. In a handwritten letter relayed to Clinton, Garrison said a deployment of armored vehicles would not have changed the outcome, officials said.

The American military, which lost 18 troops trying to capture Mohammed Farah Aidid in early October, provided the Somali clan leader with an airplane and an escort Thursday to get him to peace talks in the Ethiopian capital, leaving Administration officials scrambling to explain the latest twist in America's tangled adventure in Somalia. Having failed to put Somalia back together by force, the Administration switched in October to conciliation.

Somali clan leader Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid is boycotting an aid conference in Ethiopia until the United Nations releases three of his top aides, his spokesman said Sunday. U.N. officials in Somalia recommended to the U.N. chief that the aides be released, a U.N. official said. Aidid's boycott threatens the meeting's chance for forging a reconciliation among Somali factions. A U.N. official, meanwhile, said that U.S.