Marine Missing After Copter Crashes Into Sea Off Somalia

A U.S. Marine sergeant was lost and presumed dead Monday after the helicopter he was aboard crashed in the Indian Ocean as American forces prepared for the dangerous mission of evacuating the last of U.N. forces in Somalia.

The U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said the Marine Corps UH-1N Huey was lifting off from the Essex, a multipurpose amphibious assault ship, about 25 miles southeast of the Somali capital of Mogadishu and crashed into the sea 100 yards from the ship.

Four personnel were rescued and treated for minor injuries.

“Search and rescue operations were unable to locate the missing person,” the Navy said, and the search was called off.

The Marine was identified as Sgt. Justin A. Harris, 23, of Toledo, Ohio.

A Navy spokesman said the copter was on a routine flight in daylight with fair weather. The crash was unexplained, but a spokesman said Harris apparently was trapped inside when the craft sank.

This was the first loss since a multinational Naval Task Force began converging off Somalia to protect the withdrawal of the last U.N. peacekeepers still on the ground in Somalia.

The United States has not deployed troops in Somalia since March, 1994, after a humanitarian mission had turned into open warfare with local clan leaders, resulting in the deaths of 18 U.S. Army rangers in a single engagement.

But the United Nations has stayed on in Somalia and now has called on the U.S.-led task force to help it exit with minimum casualties.

About 50 Marines already are deployed at the port of Mogadishu to prepare for the arrival of about 2,700 more Marines and 500 Italian troops later this month. The evacuation is planned to take only a few days.

Commanders say they hope a strong show of force will discourage any attacks by Somali clan leaders, who have been fighting for most of the past four years. The rival groups are eager to take control of strategic U.N. positions--the seaport and airport at Mogadishu--as they are abandoned by outside forces.

In the city, hundreds of Somalis already are reportedly converging outside the U.N. perimeter brandishing small arms and shoulder-held rocket launchers.