U.S. Sends Marines to Kismayu in New Effort to Curb Warlords

The United States is dispatching 2,200 troops from a Marine expeditionary unit, which has been stationed off Somalia’s coast, to the riot-torn city of Kismayu as part of a new effort to demonstrate allied resolve in quelling insurgencies there.

Marine Lt. Gen. Martin L. Brandtner, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the force, already en route to Kismayu, will make an amphibious landing there and conduct convoy operations up and down the coast for several days.

He said the deployment is intended as a show of force to discourage further violence in the wake of an attempt by one warlord in Kismayu last week to take the city by storm. His attack eventually was repelled by American forces.

Kismayu--in transition from American to U.N. forces--now is under the jurisdiction of an 800-person Belgian army battalion. But the United States has agreed to maintain a rapid deployment force in Somalia to help back up U.N. troops.

Despite last week’s uprising, Brandtner and two State Department officials who appeared with him before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday continued to express optimism that the transfer to U.N. peacekeeping forces will go smoothly.

Lawmakers, nevertheless, pressed the Administration to seek Congress’ approval under the War Powers Act before it assigns American troops to serve in the U.N. force.

Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), the panel’s chairman, said the operation--which for the first time would empower U.N. troops to fire when they think it necessary to prevent attacks by local forces--would be “precedent-setting.”

The lawmakers’ admonition was the strongest that the Administration has received yet with regard to the Somalia operation.

The George Bush Administration, which first ordered American troops to the region last winter, did not seek congressional approval before taking the action.