Hawiye Clan Insurgents (Somalia)
جمهورية الصومال الفيدرالية

Hawiye clan insurgents
Operator: United Somali Congress
Location: Mogadishu, Somalia
Timeframe: 1993

Personal interest:
During my military service performing weather support for the US Army, the United States committed to protect the UN humanitarian aid mission to Somalia. US forces battled Somali warlords, almost all of whom belonged to Mohammed Farrah Aidid's Somali National Alliance (SNA). They drew largely from the Habar Gidir sub-clan of the Hawiye, who began fighting U.S. troops at the onset of the 1993 amphibious invasion of Mogadishu. SNA forces were primarily equipped with light infantry weaponry, like the AK-47 assault rifle. Experienced fighters supplemented the main forces with RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, sniper rifles, mortars, mines and machine guns.

During the Battle of Mogadishu, SNA forces fought alongside hundreds of irregulars comprised mostly of untrained civilians turned combatants, many of whom were women and children who had grievances against UNOSOM troops. Human rights abuses by UN peacekeepers and US military airstrikes in heavily populated neighborhoods inflamed the growing animosity of the civilian population of Mogadishu. Large numbers of Somalis not affiliated with the SNA joined the battle spontaneously, as small arms were widely distributed among the civilian population. By the time of the Battle of Mogadishu, literally every inhabitant considered the UN and US as enemies and were ready to take up arms against them. People who ten months before had welcomed the US Marines with open arms were now ready to risk death to drive them out.