Somalia Faction Leader Aidid Dies He Was The Target Of Manhunt By U.S. Troops During 1993 Mission

Somali faction leader Gen. Mohamed Aidid has died, his radio station reported Friday.

The radio, broadcasting from the southern half of Mogadishu that Aidid controls, said Aidid died of a heart attack Thursday afternoon. It said he would be buried in Mogadishu on Friday.

Aidid, the main faction leader in Somalia, was the target of a manhunt by U.S. troops during a U.N. peacekeeping mission to Somalia in 1993. The troops never caught him, and 18 U.S. soldiers were killed during an attack on his stronghold.

On Saturday, sources close to the 62-year-old Aidid confirmed he had been hit by a stray bullet above the kidney on July 25 in the southern Medina section of Mogadishu, but said was treated at a hospital and released.

Earlier reports on a radio station operated by Aidid’s rival, Ali Mahdi Mohamed, who controls north Mogadishu, claimed Aidid’s injury was serious.

Hospitals and clinics in Mogadishu last week reported more than 100 people killed and another 400 wounded since fighting flared up last month among Aidid’s forces and a coalition of militas trying to oust him.

BBC World Radio on Thursday quoted several sources as saying Aidid had died from injuries during recent fighting. It quoted an unidentified senior aide in Washington as saying he was told officially that Aidid had died during surgery.

The BBC also cited another Aidid supporter in Mogadishu as confirming the death.

Somalia has been without a true government since 1991, when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted and rival factions began fighting for control.

Aidid’s faction controls roughly half of south Mogadishu. The other half is controlled by forces loyal to his former financier, Osman Hassan Ali, known as Atto.