American Killed, 3 Hurt by Somalia Land Mine : Famine: The four civilians riding in a car were an advance team for Friday’s Marine thrust into Bardera.

The U.S.-led Operation Restore Hope suffered its first casualty when a car carrying four Americans hit a land mine near the inland town of Bardera on Wednesday, killing one civilian Army employee and seriously wounding three State Department security officers.

Marine Col. Fred Peck, spokesman for the joint military operation, said the four men were driving about half a mile north of the Bardera airport when they hit the mine. Another mine was found nearby, but officials have been unable to determine who planted the devices or when.

Officials said the victims’ names would not be released until their relatives could be notified. One wounded man was in critical but stable condition; the other two were in satisfactory condition. They were being treated aboard the U.S. Navy ship Tripoli, an amphibious assault vessel.

The four men were an advance team for the U.S. Marine thrust into Bardera, which is scheduled for Christmas Day. They were not traveling on a road the 1,000-Marine force will use when it heads to Bardera to try to restore order and ensure that food and other relief supplies reach starving Somalis there.

It is probable, sources said, that the victims of Wednesday’s blast were working in the area to identify leaders of various community groups in Bardera to determine who should participate in talks with Robert B. Oakley, President Bush’s special envoy to Somalia. He flew to Bardera later Wednesday for those talks.

Bardera lies in the center of one of the worst famine areas in Somalia. It also was the site of some of the most destructive fighting in Somalia’s recent civil war. American officials have said for days that the roads in the area are mined and potentially dangerous.

But Peck said that American strategists had believed that all the mine fields in the area had been identified.

The White House expressed its regret over the American death but said the casualty--the first since Operation Restore Hope began in Somalia on Dec. 9--had not altered President Bush’s plans, announced Tuesday, to visit U.S. troops on New Year’s Eve.

President-elect Bill Clinton also expressed sadness over the American death and praised the efforts of the U.S. troops who are spending their holidays away from home.

Officials said there is evidence linking the mine that exploded to a renegade clan headed by Gen. Mohamed Said Hiarsi, who has threatened to oppose the American military intervention. Said Hiarsi, a graduate of the U.S. Army Command School at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., uses the nom de guerre Morgan. American officials often refer to him as “the butcher of Mogadishu” because of his brutal tactics in the capital during the civil war.

Oakley has dismissed the idea that Morgan poses any danger, saying the clan leader and his band fled Bardera days ago and are in hiding to the west near the Kenyan border.

Peck said no opposition is expected for the Bardera operation, which will seek to secure the area so that large-scale overland relief missions can begin there.

One potential hitch to a quick resumption of aid is the condition of the Bardera airport, a dirt strip that has become badly rutted by heavy and constant rain.

“It may take several days to get it into shape,” said Philip Johnston, a U.N. spokesman.

The entire relief effort, which expands daily, is also experiencing some delays because it lacks working trucks, Johnston said, adding, “Most of the Somali trucks have not been maintained for the last three years because they have not been able to get spare parts.”

As a stopgap measure, the United Nations has signed a three-month contract with a group of Ethiopian truck drivers to haul relief supplies.

This has led to complaints by the Somalis. They argue that they should receive necessary parts to get their trucks operating rather than having to watch the lucrative work go to Ethiopians, who, historically, have not been the Somalis’ most favorite people.

Johnston said the United Nations will employ as many Somali trucks as are functioning, and the relief effort will work the others in when they are repaired.

He said that Bardera--which he estimated has a population of 6,000, with 16,000 more living in a refugee camp just outside town--presents problems that did not exist in the towns occupied earlier by the Marines. For example, he said, “there are no storage facilities and no potable water.”

He said he hopes that the military forces will bring pumps with them so existing water purification facilities can operate.

U.S. Civilian Killed

An American civilian was killed by an anti-tank mine near Bardera, where 1,000 Marines are expected to arrive Friday. Listed below, other troop movements: Already secured Mogadishu Bella Dogle Baidoa Kismayu Upcoming moves Today: Hoddur Friday: Bardera Sunday: Gailalassi Monday: Belet Huen