On that fateful day, roughly a hundred U.S. special forces troops were set to drop into Mogadishu by helicopter. They would capture Aidid’s men and get out of dodge in 60 minutes. Instead, what ensued was an overnight battle across the streets of the city that cost the lives of 18 American soldiers and over a thousand Somalis. “The plan was to surround a white three-story house in the capital city of Mogadishu where leaders of Aidid’s Habar Gidir clan were gathering,” wrote Mark Bowden years later for Smithsonian. “Rangers would helicopter in, lower themselves on ropes and surround the building on all sides.”
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On the ground, an assault team was loading captives when militia members took down one of the surveilling Black Hawks with an RPG. As ground elements worked to shore up prisoners and evacuate casualties, fire fighting increased, and the troop elements were split. Two more of the helicopters took fire but managed to make it back to base damaged. That’s when another Black Hawk went down. The entire crew died but one of the pilots, who was taken prisoner. Various elements were split across the city, working to break away and return to base.
The operators triaged their wounded in the field while they held militia members at bay and awaited reinforcements. They fought all through the night. Ultimately, the mission was labeled successful as Aidid’s lieutenants were captured along with 20 other SNA members, but the Battle of Mogadishu was the deadliest for American troops since Vietnam.
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