Bush sends US troops to Somalia. President George Bush sends 25,000 US troops to Somalia. By the end of 1992, civil war, drought, and clan warfare had plunged the Somali population into dire conditions of hunger and disease. The United Nations launched a humanitarian mission, but distribution of aid with the ongoing war proved arduous. The US agreed to support the mission by sending military aid. On June 5, 1993, militias led by Somali warlord General Mohammed Aidid massacred 24 Pakistani members of the UN peacekeeping force. The US and the UN actively sought the elusive soldier, and in August sent 400 soldiers to capture Aidid. Two months later, 18 of them were killed and 84 wounded during the ill-fated attack on the Olympia Hotel in Mogadishu. Approximately 1,000 Somalis died in the 17-hour firefight. Three days later, with Aidid still at large, newly elected President Bill Clinton ordered the US withdrawal. Bloody clan wars in Somalia continued for a long time.
