CAMP PENDLETON : Marines Returning After Assignment
WASHINGTON — A contingent of 2,400 Camp Pendleton Marines is heading home after completing an assignment in the coastal waters off Somalia, where they assisted in the transport of U.N. peacekeeping troops, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.
After some port stops in the Western Pacific, the Marines should be back at their San Diego County base in several weeks, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joe Gradisher.
The Marine unit, aboard five ships, provided communications and other logistic support to U.S. flights that ferried Pakistani U.N. peacekeeping troops to Somalia. The Pakistanis are are protecting the port and airport in the capital of Mogadishu, where relief supplies are arriving for starving Somalis.
A disastrous drought has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Somalis, and a massive relief effort is under way to bring food to the ravaged East African country. The peacekeeping soldiers are protecting relief shipments from roving gangs that have looted supplies and hampered deliveries.
The final contingent of Pakistanis arrived in Mogadishu on Tuesday, said Gradisher.
The Marines, who have been deployed all summer, were diverted to Somalia after conducting exercises with the Kuwait military in the Persian Gulf.
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