Al-Hawadi Street turned into a battlefield. Helicopters in the sky kept pouring bullets and rockets, and militiamen and rangers were fighting fiercely on the ground.
Besides the warring parties, there is also a group of poor "innocents" living here——
Civilians of Mogadishu!
Ali Muhammad is still a student. He is only 14 years old this year. He is tall and thin, with prominent cheekbones and a few beard hairs just sprouting from his chin.
He is studious and diligent, and he strives hard.
I just want to use my own efforts to have a home where I don’t have to worry about being bombed and where I can sleep peacefully at night.
For his dreams and goals, Ali never misses any time on weekdays. Every morning he goes to church to study English and business, and in the afternoon he helps his parents take care of the small store he opened north of the Olympic Hotel.
The front door of the store is on the roadside of Hawadi Avenue, diagonally across the avenue from the Galle family's house.
The fighting broke out nearly half an hour ago, and the American Rangers, whom Ali was already familiar with, often appeared here, descended from the sky in helicopters.
I saw the helicopter dive towards the ground, and gunshots began to sound randomly all around.
Ali knew that something big was about to happen. He was so frightened that he immediately ran to the hamburger and candy store owned by his father and peeked out from the crack in the door without even daring to breathe.
Ali saw the American soldiers rappelling down the rope and landing at the intersection of Hawadi Avenue.
His shop is located just on the corner of the intersection. The door of the house opens to the south. The rangers who came down leaned against the wall as soon as they landed. There was only a wall between them.
Ali could tell that these soldiers were different from those who had come to deliver food before.
They were wearing body armor and had weapons strapped to their chests, like wolves armed to the teeth. They looked extremely ferocious, which made Ali instinctively fear them.
He knew that this place would soon become a battlefield and it would be dangerous to stay here.
But he was afraid and he didn't dare to go out.
He knew that he should stay away from the door now, otherwise a stray bullet would penetrate the door and kill him, but the parents and siblings he was expecting to appear still stood guard in front of the door.
Less than two minutes have passed.
Ali saw the appearance of armed militiamen. They were sitting in cars and holding guns. They rushed along Hawadi Avenue and started fighting with the American soldiers.
Fortunately, the pickup truck failed to rush over in the end, and no one fired at his door. Ali, who was hiding in the room, could continue to be a bystander.
About 10 armed militiamen on the truck got out of the truck and started shooting at each other with the American soldiers.
Bullets whizzed past my eyes.
Ali watched with his own eyes the Somalis in the car, who were hit by bullets and were covered in blood.
He is even more scared!
Suddenly, Ali saw his 8-year-old brother in the alley opposite, running home crying in fear.
It seems that he doesn't know that the street he needs to cross to go home has turned into a battlefield.
Ali realized that his brother might be in danger, so he opened the door and shouted to the other side, telling his brother not to come out of the alley, but to hide inside and not come out.
Unfortunately, there was too much gunfire in the street, and Ali's words had no effect.
Because the younger brother saw his elder brother's appearance, he ran out faster and soon rushed into the Hawadi Street where bullets were flying.
"咻咻咻咻咻..."
Bullets came and went, all over the street.
Ali just watched helplessly as his youngest brother fell in the middle of the road, bleeding from his head, and there was no movement.
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He is only 8 years old!
Ali witnessed this scene with his own eyes. Seeing his brother die tragically on the road, he collapsed to the point where his eyes went black and his mind went blank.
At this time, a helicopter flew over low, and the gun barrel on one side of the fuselage spurted out a long flame.
Ali didn't know what this kind of gun was called, but he only knew that it was like a claw of the devil, instantly destroying the street on one side beyond recognition.
The armed militia at the other end was silenced, and the American soldiers also stopped shooting.
The gunfire in the streets disappeared!
After Ali recovered from his fear, he ran out to find his brother, hoping that he was still alive, regardless of the danger of being shot to death.
When I ran over, I found that my brother's head... had cracked like a watermelon.
"Da da da……"
Another pickup truck rushed over, and the heavy machine gun on the truck fired at the Rangers, completely ignoring Ali who was still standing in the middle of the road.
Ali listened to the bullets whizzing past his head and knew that the place was about to be caught in the crossfire again.
In order not to be intercepted and beaten to death like his younger brother, he could only hold back the fear and sadness in his heart and run wildly along the street to the left into an alley.
The reason why he did not go home was because he wanted to find his father and mother.
His younger brother is already dead, and he cannot lose another family member.
Ali ran desperately along the alley, away from the intersection where the Rangers and militiamen were fighting. He turned left at the end of this dirty alley and entered a new alley.
After running around in circles for several minutes, Ali finally arrived behind the Olympic Hotel.
Before the fighting broke out, Ali remembered that his father and mother came to the hotel with prepared hamburgers and candies to complete the daily supply.
Ali pushed the door but couldn't get in.
The people inside the hotel have sealed the front and rear doors and windows to protect themselves.
Ali couldn't get in, so he could only hide.
Screams were heard outside, the streets were crowded with women and children fleeing in all directions, and dead bodies and animal carcasses were strewn on the ground.
Some people were running towards where the fighting was taking place, while others were running in the opposite direction.
Others looked like they didn't know where to run.
He saw a woman wrapped naked, running down the street like crazy, waving her arms and screaming, not knowing what she was doing.
The roar of helicopters overhead was deafening, and the crisp sound of machine gun fire echoed all around.
There are more and more Aidid militiamen on the streets, holding loudspeakers and shouting in Somali, asking Somalis to come out and protect their homes together.
Ali knew these people who were shouting, and people in this place called them "magic words."
They are Aidid's personal militia, they only have rice and khat in their eyes, and they are private militia exclusively for the use of wealthy warlords.
In order to get what they want, they will chop off the heads of the rebels at any time.
Ali was just a student and part-time shop owner before. The reason why he joined Aidid's militia was just to protect his shop from the "magic words".
But now everything has changed!
Rangers broke into his home and had just killed his brother before his eyes, although he had no way of knowing whether the bullets came from American soldiers.
But this is no longer important.
He radically believed that if the Americans had not come, his brother would not have died.
They completely forgot that these peacekeeping soldiers have been risking being attacked and killed by Aidid militiamen to deliver all kinds of food and provide medical assistance to them.
Most of the civilians in the city have received rescue from the peacekeeping forces.
Now that he heard the "call" of the Aidid militia, Ali, who was filled with extreme hatred, gave up his dream of having a peaceful homeland.
I feel it's time for me to stand up and fight for my homeland.
Ali gave up going into the hotel to find his parents, and with mixed emotions of fear, anger and excitement, he ran out of his hiding spot and started the operation.
Turn left from behind the hotel back to the street, cross Hawadi Avenue and run forward to reach my friend Ahmed's house 200 meters away.
The AK-47 he was issued when he joined the Aidid militia was hidden there.
After returning to his friend's house and getting the gun, he and Ahmed, who was about to leave, gathered several friends and told them about his brother.
Ali's friends have all been brainwashed and decided to avenge his brother together.
They first hid behind a wall behind the hotel, facing the motionless convoy of Rangers parked there, and Ali started shooting for the first time in his life.
They then continued to move north, taking cover in cars and buildings, and kept shooting at American soldiers.
Ali has read a book and has a smart mind. He always jumps out from time to time, shoots at the rangers, and then runs away to avoid them.
Some of his friends, like him, used their familiarity with the terrain to shoot and change places.
If an American plane flies over, they will hide inside the house, stick the barrel of their gun out of the street corner, and shoot randomly without even looking.
None of them had ever fought, and none of them had any training.
They just want revenge and are filled with hatred.
The Rangers' marksmanship was better and their firepower was fierce. Ali's harassing attacks quickly took their toll, no matter how cautious they were.
Adan Vasavi, one of Ali's friends, jumped out and fired at the wrong time.
It happened to hit the line of the heavy machine gun.
The destructive power of the .50 caliber bullet was very terrifying. It hit the stomach, but half of the entire stomach disappeared. He immediately fell on his back on the street.
Ali braved the dangerous hail of bullets and dragged Adan to the bunker with another friend.
During the dragging process, a trail of blood was left, and intestines, viscera, minced meat, etc. were broken, and mixed with plasma, they fell to the ground along the way.
Seeing Adan vomiting blood and internal organs with his mouth full, Ali's head exploded.
The good student he once was has completely disappeared.
There is only one "militant" who is filled with hatred, no longer capable of personal subjective judgment, and only has the thought of revenge.
His eyes were red and he swore——
Two Americans must be killed, one is to avenge his brother, and the other is for his friend Adan.