by Jason Hopkins
A newly unearthed tweet shows Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar attacking the U.S. soldiers who fought and died in the Battle of Mogadishu.
“In his selective memory, he forgets to also mention the thousands of Somalis killed by the American forces that day! #NotTodaySatan,” Omar wrote in a tweet in October 2017, uncovered Monday by John Rossomando of the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
Omar was responding to another tweet about the Battle of Mogadishu, a 1993 humanitarian operation by the U.S. military that sought to save starving Somalis by preventing food and aid from being captured by enemy combatants. The battle ultimately took the lives of 19 American soldiers and wounded 73 others, and it became the subject of the famous Hollywood movie “Black Hawk Down.”
In his selective memory, he forgets to also mention the thousands of Somalis killed by the American forces that day! #NotTodaySatan https://t.co/wrFocrZymQ
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) October 16, 2017
Omar’s claim that “thousands of Somalis” were killed by American forces during that battle is wildly false by most expert’s estimations.
Captain Haad, a representative of the Somali National Alliance, said during a 2001 interview that 133 Somali militiamen died battling U.S. Delta Force soldiers and rangers, according to the Investigative Project on Terrorism. Mark Bowden, the author of “Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War,” estimated that 500 Somalis died. More liberal estimations put the death toll near 1,000.
When reached by The Daily Caller News Foundation for a statement on Monday, a spokesman for Omar’s office said they were not aware of the tweet and did not have a comment.
Omar has generated numerous controversies since getting elected to Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in November. The first-term congresswoman received enormous criticism after video was uncovered of her describing the 9/11 terrorist attackers as “some people” who “did something.” In another unearthed video, Omar appeared to shrug off the severity of saying the name of “Al Qaeda,” and she mockingly noted that Americans don’t show the same kind of shock when speaking of “America” or the “Army.”
Omar was the subject of a House resolution that was originally meant to condemn anti-Semitism following her suggestion that lawmakers supportive of Israel have “dual loyalties.” However, following intense backlash from the Democratic Party’s more progressive wing, the resolution was changed to encompass most forms of bigotry and did not specifically condemn Omar’s remarks.
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Jason Hopkins is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Jason on Twitter.
Photo “Ilhan Omar” by Ilhan Omar.
