Retired Chief Warrant Officer Mike Durant, the only surviving pilot from the “Black Hawk Down” operation criticized Omar, telling the IPT that she completely ignored the humanitarian nature of the American mission in Somalia in 1993 and the fact U.S. troops were forced to defend themselves.
Fellow Battle of Mogadishu veteran Sgt. Maj. Kyle Lamb backed up Durant. He said he took Omar’s tweet personally because he and his colleagues saw their friends’ bodies dragged through the streets of Mogadishu.
“We were trying to take out Aidid because he was a clan leader … that had kind of taken over [Mogadishu],” Lamb said on Fox News. “They were taking the food, any of the aid that we were giving to Somalia, also weapons and they were running drugs … He needed to be eliminated.”
John Rossomando, “Ilhan Omar’s Allies Mum Following ‘Black Hawk Down’ Controversy“, The Investigative Project on Terrorism, April 26, 2019