3 U.N. Peacekeepers Killed in Somalia Ambush : Africa: 5 Somalis die in attack on Italian forces. Officials see attempt by warlord’s followers to undermine peace efforts.

Militiamen loyal to fugitive Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid launched another attack against U.N. peacekeeping troops in Mogadishu, killing three Italian paratroopers and wounding 22 while injuring four Somali policemen, officials said here Friday.

The Italians were ambushed after they had completed a search operation in a suspected weapons storehouse. Italian tanks and U.S. Army AH-1 Cobra helicopters were sent to counterattack and drive off the Aidid forces, but sniper fire continued for six hours.

Hospital officials reported that at least five Somalis had been killed and 42 others wounded in what was the bloodiest attack against U.N. forces since militiamen killed 24 Pakistani troops June 5, according to wire service reports. There were no American casualties Friday.

Officials said the confrontation, which followed a brief respite on Somali independence day Thursday, marked another step in the continuing attempt by Aidid sympathizers to undermine the U.N. effort following the allies’ destruction of his major weapons arsenals June 12.

Diplomatic sources said they expect such tactics to continue until the Aidid forces become convinced that the former Somali general has been crippled politically, so the prospects are for an increased risk of injury to U.N. troops from sniper fire until the situation is calmed.

Special U.N. representative Jonathan Howe, a retired U.S. Navy admiral, has ordered Aidid’s arrest and detention. But U.N. forces still have not apprehended him--partly because they fear provoking a blood bath involving ordinary Somalis.

U.S. Army Maj. David Stockwell, the U.N. military spokesman in Mogadishu, said the latest ambush began just after 8 a.m. as the Italians were withdrawing from a two-hour search of the suspected weapons storehouse.

He said the Italians first found themselves impeded by makeshift barricades, then nearby Somalis began throwing rocks.

“The rocks turned into small-arms fire and that turned into machine-gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire,” Stockwell said.

Although the Italian force sent in its own tanks and helicopters, the situation deteriorated, Stockwell said. Sometime in midmorning, he said, the Italians called for help from the U.S. quick-reaction force, which has been stationed in Mogadishu to provide just such backup.

U.S. helicopters almost immediately dispersed the Somalis, and the Italians rescinded their call for help before American ground troops reached the scene, Stockwell said. Pakistani forces also remained on alert.

The Associated Press reported from Somalia that residents of refugee camps who were caught in the cross-fire gathered their belongings and fled as the gunships hovered over the area. Angry Somalis threw rocks at some foreigners, forcing them away from the area.

The deaths of the Italian troops--the first since the U.N. forces took over the peacekeeping operation in early May--jolted Italy. A government communique reiterated Italy’s commitment to the U.N. mission’s humanitarian and peacekeeping goals but also stressed the “need to keep the mission in Somalia rigorously within the framework of a search for a political solution.”

At the same time, Italian Defense Minister Fabbio Fabbri demanded that the Italian commander in Somalia, Brig. Gen. Bruno Lloyd, be given a larger role in deciding how to conduct such operations. “If not,” he told reporters, “we will have to reconsider the situation.”

Friday’s killings bring to 34 the number of U.N. troops who have died in such actions since the ambush of the Pakistani troops June 5, twice the total that were killed in combat in the five months before the United States turned the operation over to U.N. forces.

Defense analysts said U.N. forces are hampered by inadequate equipment, a fragmented command structure and a shortage of troops because several U.N. members, such as India, have not yet sent the forces that they had promised.

Times researcher Janet Stobart, in Rome, contributed to this report.