June 1993 attack on Pakistani military in Somalia

A Pakistani armed convoy in Mogadishu, during the UNOSOM II peacekeeping operations.

The June 5th 1993 attack on Pakistani peacekeepers in Mogadishu, was a major confrontation between elements of the Pakistan Army under United Nations command, and the Habar Gidir clan.^[1]^[2] The attack marked a major turning point in the UNSOM II operation and would prelude the Bloody Monday attack the following month. During the Somali civil war in the 1990s, up to 5,700 Pakistani troops were deployed to the country for UN peacekeeping.^[3]^[2]

Rationale for inspection[]

On Friday afternoon, the UNOSOM notified General Aideed that they were planning to inspect five of his arms storage areas in the capital, in keeping with an agreement and apparently invited his faction to send representatives.^[1]

The attack[]

On the 5th of Saturday June 1993, a Pakistani force that had been tasked with the inspection of an arms cache located at the radio station, engaged in combat with Mohammed Farah Aideed's S.N.A. The fighting resulted in the death of 23 Pakistani soldiers, 16 to 35 Somalis and left 59 Pakistanis and 3 Americans wounded according hospital officials said. Aideed disputes the hospital figures, saying 70 Somalis had been killed.^[1] The severity of the Pakistani death toll is often attributed to the lack of armored cars, and many of those killed were shot as they tried to leave their cars to take cover in nearby houses and behind walls.^[1]

According to the U.N.[]

By 10 ^am on Saturday the inspections were completed and almost immediately, fighting broke out in five locations in the area. Two of the incidents of shooting was just a diversionary tactic to draw out peacekeeping troops, U.N. officials claimed. At Radio Mogadishu, one of the inspection sites, Somalis began to incite the crowd and snipers opened fire.^[1] The largest fight of the incident occurred about a mile from the stadium where the roughly 4,000 Pakistani troops were stationed. Approximately 100 of them were driving back from the weapons inspections when they stopped to remove a roadblock and were ambushed Somalis militia. According to General Ikram that attackers were on both sides of the road, battling for two and a half hours with the Pakistanis, using heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and rocket launchers.^[1]

According to the Mohammed Farah Aideed[]

Immediate reaction and ramifications[]

The battle led UNOSOM II to increase its firepower, begin making deliberate shows of force with Italian and American helicopters over Mogadishu and the American Quick Reaction Force of 1,300 soldiers regrouped in Mogadishu, after having been split up into several different hot spots in Somalia.^[1]^[4]^[5]

On 6 June 1993, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 837, for the arrest and prosecution of the persons responsible for the death and wounding of the peacekeepers. Jonathan Howe, the United Nations envoy to Somalia, would announce on UN radio that, "A full investigation will be made into the affair, and appropriate steps will be taken against those responsible." ^[1] In a further letter directly addressed to Aideed, that would become eerily prescient when the events of Bloody Monday would occur a month later, Howe would say:

"If the present course is pursued,"..."the results could cause further grief, especially for innocent and uninvolved Somali people. The casualties resulting from yesterday's attacks were excessive and inexplicable." ^[1] ~ U.N. Envoy to Somalia Johnathan Howe

Following the passing of Resolution 837 UNOSOM forces would begin making military strikes all over Mogadishu.^[6] On the 17th of June, Aideeds compound would be directly targeted by AC-130 gunships in retaliation.^[5]^[7]^[8]

8 days after the battle at radio Mogadishu Pakistani peacekeepers fired into a crowd of civilians, killing children as young as ten and two years old, and at least 20 Somalis in total.^[9]^[10]^[11]