Black Hawk Down - THE FIRST BIN LADEN BATTLE

This view of an RPG-7, which can cause a great deal of damage, displays the type of weapon which was used to take-down two Black Hawks during the 1993 battle of Mogadishu. Photo of RPG-7, captured by U.S. Army personnel, online courtesy Nellis Air Force Base.

Later, it was determined that an "RPG 7," with a fuse modified so the shell would explode in flight, had struck the Black Hawks. That form of rocket-propelled grenade had been developed in Afghanistan by the Mujahideen ("holy warriors") during their war with the Soviet Union.

In his speech condemning what had happened to the American soldiers on 3-4 October 1993, British Prime Minister Tony Blair connected the ambush and downed Black Hawks to Osama bin Laden. Mohammed Odeh (an Osama bin Laden lieutenant), had been sent to Somalia to train and fight alongside the warlords.

America—although the country didn't know it—was already at war with bin Laden in the fall of 1993.