The U.S.'s Honeymoon Is Over !

JUST AS AMERICANS WERE LAYING PLANS TO PART company on the best of terms, the scene in Somalia turned nasty. On Wednesday demonstrators set up burning roadblocks along the main thoroughfares in Mogadishu and pelted passing U.S. servicemen with chunks of concrete. Banners paraded past the Marine base at the old American embassy read THIS IS SOMALI SAND NOT AMERICAN SAND. Later in the week, fierce fire fights erupted in several parts of the city between UNITAF (Unified Task Force) troops and Somalis thought to be loyal to General Mohammed Farrah Aidid, leaving five American servicemen and two Nigerians injured and an estimated 10 Somalis dead. The unrest, the most violent involving UNITAF troops since Operation Restore Hope began in December, was triggered by the takeover of the southern port town of Kismayu by gunmen loyal to General Mohammed Said Hersi, a.k.a. "Morgan." His men reportedly crept into Kismayu Monday night and opened fire on the militia of Omar Jess, a local warlord with close ties to Aidid. Angered that American forces in the town allowed this to happen, Aidid accused them of engineering the attack and called for widespread demonstrations against the foreign force. Relief operations in the capital ground to a halt as aid workers confined themselves to their heavily guarded compounds after the fatal shooting of an Irish nurse earlier in the week.