Little Bird Strafing Run in Mogadishu

To the north of that position, Chalk 2's M60 machine gunner, Specialist Shawn Nelson, sees a larger crowd numbering in the thousands gathering on the street. A group of 15 Somalis approach with those armed using the unarmed as human shields. He first tries to aim just at the militia, but as he is taking fire from the group, he quickly weighs his options and decides he has no choice but to open fire on all of them. The group scatters, leaving armed and unarmed dead. Seeing this, a larger group of militia and unarmed locals charge at Chalk 2. Without time to think about it, the chalk returns fire. At that moment, a little bird marauds down the street above their heads and inflicts a devastating minigun run on the crowd. The display of awesome firepower disperses the few survivors. All four chalks are now being forced into the tough decision to open fire on militia who are using unarmed people as human shields. From the perspective of locals who are just arriving at the scene, they see the Americans indiscriminately firing on civilians and the fury of the citizens grows further. American forces have stirred the hornets' nest.