Somali Ambush Kills 7 Nigerian U.N. Soldiers

Seven Nigerian U.N. soldiers were killed and seven others wounded here in a pre-dawn ambush Sunday believed to have been carried out by the forces of fugitive Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid.

Two Pakistani soldiers and a U.S. diplomat were also wounded in separate street ambushes, which U.N. officials also blamed on Aidid, who is waging a campaign to drive U.N. peacekeeping troops from this war-ravaged, faction-ridden country.

The American, identified as a political officer with the U.S. Embassy here, was shot in the chest as his car approached the site of the attack on the Nigerians in south Mogadishu. He was reported in stable condition after surgery.

Later Sunday, Somali forces fired on a U.N. airfield, and U.S. troops in helicopters responded by attacking the Somali mortar position with cannons and rockets, U.N. spokesman Maj. David Stockwell told the Associated Press.

Stockwell said he knew of no Somali or U.N. casualties in this incident. He said the Somali fighters took cover in a nearby building used as a hospital.

U.S. helicopter gunships could be heard pounding ground targets in the area of the ambush--a U.N. troop position called Checkpoint Pasta because of its proximity to a former pasta factory.

Observers in the neighborhood, a stronghold of Aidid’s militia forces, said the helicopters were raking suspected militia positions with rockets and heavy machine-gun fire.

A U.N. spokesman said late Sunday that military commanders had considered sending elite U.S. Army Rangers into one building controlled by the Somali militiamen but decided against it when large crowds gathered outside the building and began setting fires in the streets. The 400-member Ranger unit was deployed here two weeks ago to help capture Aidid, but efforts so far have been ineffective.

The attack on the Nigerians brought to 47 the number of peacekeeping troops killed since the United Nations assumed control of the Somalia intervention operation in May. Twenty-four Pakistani troops were slain in a similar ambush in June, and four U.S. soldiers died when a land mine exploded under their vehicle last month.

In New York, U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali denounced the latest killings and said they demonstrated “the urgent need” to disarm all of Somalia’s opposing factions. Senior U.S. officials here used blunter language, saying the attack illustrated again that Aidid must be captured if social order is ever to be restored here.

The Nigerians came under heavy fire Sunday from both sides of the street as they were arriving at Checkpoint Pasta to replace Italian peacekeepers, who were being reassigned to the Somali countryside.

One Nigerian soldier was reportedly being held prisoner by Somali militiamen Sunday night, and U.N. officials were said to be negotiating for his release. As many as 30 Somali casualties were reported in the shootout, but more precise figures could not be learned.

The Nigerians were to have taken over at the checkpoint from 800 Italian troops who are being transferred because of disagreements between Italy and senior U.N. commanders over the conduct of the campaign against Aidid.

U.N. officials have accused the Italians of making separate agreements with Aidid partisans as a means of forestalling militia attacks on Italian troops.

Somalis interviewed near the ambush site Sunday said the Italian troops were able to set up positions there because they had requested and received “permission” to do so and that the Nigerians would have to do the same if they expected to enter the area without further bloodshed.

Nigerian commanders here blamed such alleged Italian deal-making as a cause of Sunday’s attack, and they accused the Italian troops in the area of standing by as the Nigerian soldiers--arriving at the checkpoint in open pickup trucks--were being cut down by a torrent of automatic weapons fire.

Lt. Col. Ola Oyinlola, commander of the Nigerian contingent here, said of the Italians: “They deliberately left the Nigerians alone; there was no doubt about it.”

Oyinlola said Italians stationed near the ambush site refused to open fire to assist the Nigerian troops, and at one point in the firefight even asked the beleaguered Nigerians to move away from an Italian armored vehicle so as not to draw fire to it.

There was no immediate reaction from Italian commanders.