Mohammed Farah Aidid

With 7,400 American troops bunkered in heavily fortified Mogadishu compounds and 8,600 more biding their time on U.S. warships off the coast, nearly 2,000 Somali men, women and children poured into the streets of the capital Sunday to hoist flowers and palm branches, chant praises to Allah and, mostly, declare victory for their leader--onetime fugitive-turned-powerbroker Mohammed Farah Aidid.

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.

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.

Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid, with the U.N. price on his head lifted, emerged from hiding Thursday to celebrate his triumph over foreign opponents with about 4,000 shouting, dancing and drumming supporters. In a clear recognition of Aidid's authority, U.S. special envoy Robert B. Oakley met with the powerful faction leader. Militiamen with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles guarded Aidid when his van drove into a marketplace for his faction's weekly "peace" rally.

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.

Diplomatic and military officials said that two weeks before 18 American soldiers were killed in the capital, Mogadishu, the U.S. Embassy sent an urgent cable to Washington arguing that the U.S.-led military campaign had failed. The cable called for a cease-fire and negotiations with clan leader Mohammed Farah Aidid. However, the Sept. 17 cable apparently failed to generate any change at the highest levels of the Clinton Administration, which shifted its policy only after the deaths of the U.S.

Warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid rearmed his militiamen right under the noses of tens of thousands of U.N. peacemaking troops charged with disarming them, apparently using extortion and sympathetic middlemen to build his arsenal during his months-long battle against the United Nations and the United States, according to informed Somali sources and U.N. military officers. Aidid's forces may well have employed this arms cache when they shot down two 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 general who led the initial U.S. intervention in Somalia said Thursday that the United States made "a gross miscalculation" when it mounted a manhunt for clan leader Mohammed Farah Aidid--a miscalculation that he said has since been corrected satisfactorily. "Whether you like Aidid or not . . . in the Somalis' eyes he was a leader," Marine Lt. Gen. Robert B. Johnston told the House Armed Services Committee. "To take him on, you . . . take on his entire clan.

About 1,000 Somalis turned out for a peace demonstration Sunday as part of a campaign by Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid to change his warlord image. Some chanted, "Down with the U.N.!" and "Down with Clinton!" but most of the people seemed content to listen to speakers and sing along to a lilting, traditional poem. Aidid did not attend the rally.