2 GIs Wounded in Mogadishu Ambush : Somalia: Two of the gunmen are killed by return fire after attack on vehicles returning to U.N. headquarters.

Gun men ambushed American military vehicles Saturday, wounding two U.S. servicemen in the latest attack on U.N. personnel. Two Somalis were killed in the return fire.

The gunmen fired on two Humvee all-purpose vehicles as the peacekeepers were returning from the airport to U.N. headquarters, said Capt. Jonathan Dahms, a U.N. spokesman.

Other soldiers in the attacked vehicles shot back, killing the two Somalis. Three or four other gunmen apparently escaped, Dahms said.

“It was a deliberate, planned ambush,” said Maj. Leann Swieczkowski, a U.N. spokeswoman.

Sgt. Maj. Patrick R. Ballogg, 42, of Miller, Ind., was shot in the right shoulder and hand, and Sgt. Michael D. Bower, 28, was shot in the right knee. Dahms said both were in stable condition. Both men are with the 5th Special Forces Group from Ft. Bragg, N.C.

Earlier, Pakistani peacekeepers manning a checkpoint on 21 October Road, a frequent site of clashes between U.N. soldiers and Somali militiamen, came under sniper fire. No casualties were reported.

The daylight attacks followed one of the quietest nights since June 5, when 24 Pakistanis were killed in a series of ambushes the United Nations blames on renegade warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid.

Some of the Pakistanis died while supervising a food distribution.

More than 23,000 people received food Saturday for the first time in six weeks, despite U.N. refusal to provide military escorts into areas where its peacekeepers have been killed.

Twenty-six distribution centers in the capital were to receive a truckload of wheat and maize from CARE International.

The unescorted deliveries pointed to the growing difference between those charged with performing U.N. humanitarian functions and those running the military operation.

“UNOSOM would not provide military escorts,” said Simon Israel of CARE, referring to the U.N. operation in Somalia. “We can understand why, but we are in the humanitarian business, and that’s the No. 1 priority.”

Before the distribution began, U.N. spokesman Farouk Malawi described the unescorted deliveries as an experiment by the United Nations to see if food could be distributed safely without military guards. He said he had no knowledge of the military’s refusal to provide escorts.

Israel said the unescorted deliveries were the result of CARE’s initiative, not the United Nations’.

Israel said CARE had worked for days to get assurances from Somali elders in the affected neighborhoods that the deliveries could be made without interference.

Meanwhile, a truck convoy carrying more than 200 German troops left Mogadishu for Belet Huen, about 180 miles to the northwest. It was escorted by Italian troops in armored personnel carriers, with U.S. Army helicopters providing cover overhead.

The German soldiers are among the first of about 1,700 Germany has pledged to the U.N. mission in Somalia in Germany’s first military deployment overseas since World War II.