The death of a Marine who was shot by a sniper while on a nighttime foot patrol comes as the U.S. military appears to be deepening its involvement in this lawless east African nation.
The Pentagon identified the dead Marine as Lance Cpl. Anthony D. Botello of Wilberton, Okla.The soldier, hit in the capital's dangerous northern sector just before midnight Monday, was the second Marine and the third American killed in Somalia since American forces came ashore Dec. 9.
Earlier this month, U.S. military spokesmen said they hoped to turn control of their mercy mission over to the United Nations by month's end.
But U.N. officials want the U.S.-led allied force to make the famine-wracked country safer first.
On Monday, U.S. helicopter gunships and Belgian troops used rocket and cannon fire to blast a clan militia column heading for a rival militia's encampment near the southern port of Kismayu.
They killed eight Somalis, said Farouk Mawlawi, a U.N. spokesman. American officials said seven vehicles and several artillery pieces were destroyed with no allied casualties reported.
The allies were enforcing a cease-fire in an increasingly unstable area - aid agencies have been pulling foreign workers from Kismayu - and had acted at the request of Gen. Mohamed Farrah Aidid, Somalia's dominant warlord.
Tuesday, Aidid thanked the United States for the attack, which targeted a militia led by one of his rivals. Speaking to 1,000 people at a Mogadishu rally, he claimed the attack had forced his rival to flee to the Kenyan border.