WASHINGTON -- In another commitment of U.S. forces overseas, President Clinton ordered a 2,000-strong Marine unit yesterday to prepare to re-enter Somalia for the evacuation of the last United Nations peacekeepers from that African nation.
Defense officials said the withdrawal of the 15,000 international peacekeepers -- none of them U.S. combat troops -- would likely take place early next year and last a few days, with the Marines providing cover for the final stages of the pullout of both men and machines.
Mr. Clinton's decision came just one week after he agreed that as many as 23,000 U.S. forces should join other NATO troops for a possible evacuation of U.N. peacekeepers from Bosnia, potentially a much larger and more dangerous operation than Somalia.
Defense officials said a few hundred Marines would likely be landed in Mogadishu, the Somalian capital, with the rest waiting offshore to join them if they encountered any resistance. The Pentagon's doctrine of applying "overwhelming force" to combat situations would dictate the size of the deployment, defense officials said. The evacuation would be under U.S. command, and the Pentagon would foot the bill, they added.
The troops of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit are sailing with a three-ship, amphibious-ready group, led by the helicopter carrier USS Essex, on routine deployment to the Persian Gulf. They are expected to be ordered to sail for Somalia in coming weeks. A fourth ship, the helicopter carrier USS Belleau Wood, with another 1,900 Marines aboard, could be ordered to join the group, officials said.
With them are Harrier attack jets, amphibious assault craft and howitzers. According to a defense official, the Marines, who are trained in evacuation techniques, could be reinforced with AC-130 gunships. The Marines are to help the U.N. forces remove military equipment, including tanks, armored personnel carriers and helicopters that could further destabilize the situation in Somalia if they fell into the hands of the warring factions.
"We feel comfortable it is the right level of force to ensure minimal risk to American soldiers and at the same time to help our allies and to get this important equipment out of the country," said Adm. William A. Owens, deputy chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Asked about the likelihood of the Marines coming under hostile fire, he said: "It's very difficult to say. Our view is that with this kind of presence and visibility of this kind of presence, it would be unwise for anyone to interfere with this type of operation. So our hope would be that the amount of resistance to this would be very limited."
Chief Warrant Officer Bill Wright, a Marine spokesman, said: "To say this is a cakewalk . . . I would not say that. To say it has the possibility of catastrophe, I don't think that's the right description either. It is prudent to say that whenever you get into harm's way, there is a danger."
Two Marines were killed in combat during the initial deployment in Somalia. The United States was part of the U.N. humanitarian mission there from December 1992 until March of this year. At the peak of U.S. presence, in January 1993, 25,400 U.S. troops were deployed. U.S. forces suffered a total of 30 combat deaths, including 18 Army Rangers killed in a single gunfight in Mogadishu with supporters of Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidid in October 1993. That toll persuaded Mr. Clinton to recall the U.S. troops.
Yesterday he decided it was "the right thing to do" to send a limited number of U.S. troops back for a limited time, for a limited operation, after U.N. commanders asked for help.
Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch said there was "almost universal agreement" from members of Congress for providing "limited assistance" and added: "The president decided we must help those nations, which joined with us in 1992 at the beginning of this operation, to help them get out of harm's way."
The remaining U.N. forces are mainly from Egypt, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Malaysia. They have been facing increasing hostility in Mogadishu. A defense official said the U.S. operation would be wholly under U.S command, avoiding the confusion in the former Yugoslavia, where NATO operations have to have the approval of the United Nations force commander.