Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden

Author:Mark Bowden
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3, pdf
Tags: Military - Strategy, , 1992-1993, Strategy, 1934-, Other, Aidid, United States - History, Task Force Ranger, East, War, Africa - General, Military - Other, History - Military, Military - United States, Central, United States, Military, Africa - Central, History, Army., Operation Restore Hope, Africa, General, United States., Mohammed Farah
ISBN: 9780451205148
Publisher: New American Library
Published: 2002-01-03T18:16:09.798000+00:00

Black Hawk Down

Sheik All was a professional gunman, a killer, a man who had fought for and against the dictator, and then put himself and his weathered weapon up for hire. Most Somalis had come to regard Sheik All and men like him as a plague. They were feared and despised. Now, with the Rangers to fight, men like him were valued again. To him, the Americans were just a new enemy to shoot at, and not a particularly brave one. All believed if the Rangers didn't have the helicopters helping them from above, he and his men would surround and kill them with ease, with their bare hands.

He relished the fight. There was no quarter given on either side. The black vests that came with the Rangers were especially ruthless killers. When they had come to Bakara Market they had come into his home uninvited and they would have to accept his punishment. Sheik All believed the radio broadcasts and flyers printed up by the Aidid's SNA. The Americans wanted to force all Somalis to be Christians, to give up Islam. They wanted to turn Somalis into slaves.

When the helicopter was shot down he rejoiced, and began running toward it.

Unlike most of the crowd he did not run directly to the crash. He knew there would be armed men around it and that the Rangers would move to it. It would not be easy to get close.

Sheik All was part of a large number of irregular militia moving in the crowds that had begun to form a wide perimeter in the neighborhood around the crashed helicopter. He ran up a street parallel to the moving Rangers. He would run to• a corner, wait by it, and shoot as the Rangers came across, then he would sprint to the next street and be waiting for them again. He was not weighted down with armor and gear, and he was not being shot at from all directions, so he could move faster and more freely than the Rangers. When he got to the perimeter around the crash site there were crowds, fighters like himself but mostly people who just came to see, women and children. The Americans were firing down the streets at everyone. Sheik Ali saw women and children fail.

He and several of the men in his band lay down behind a tree and shot at the Americans as they came down the slope toward the alley where the crashed helicopter was. There he saw a Ranger shot in the head, one of the black vests with the little helmets. His buddy tried to pull him to safety and he, too, was shot, in the neck.

Then Sheik All and his men moved on. They circled around the neighborhood where the helicopter was down, and crept back down toward it on Marehan Road. Sheik Ali found a tree and lay flat on his stomach behind it.

There were Americans on his side of the street about two blocks south, hiding behind a car and a tree and a wall.

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