Clinton Defends Decision on Somalia Air Strikes : Intervention: He also urges U.N. to ensure that peacekeeping troops do not kill more civilians.

WASHINGTON —  President Clinton urged the United Nations on Tuesday to ensure that its peacekeeping troops do not kill more civilians in Somalia, but he strongly defended his own decision to order American air strikes against a rebel warlord there.

“I expect (the United Nations) . . . to take every appropriate step to make sure that U.N. peacekeepers do not cause injury or death to innocent people in Somalia,” Clinton told a news conference at the White House. “That is the United Nations’ job, and the United States expects them to do it.”

His remarks were the first public suggestion of qualms about the action of Pakistani forces Sunday, when they fired into a crowd of protesters, killing at least 14.

Earlier statements from U.S. officials had largely supported the Pakistanis’ version of events, which said that the troops had been fired on by gunmen hiding behind women and children in the crowd. Witnesses, however, said they heard no shots from the crowd.

“What happened with the Pakistanis is in some doubt . . . and, as I understand it, the U.N. is trying to get to the bottom of that,” Clinton said.

At the same time, however, Clinton noted that there was “no question” that gunmen loyal to warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid had “ambushed and murdered” 23 Pakistani peacekeepers June 5.

That earlier incident helped explain the Pakistanis’ reaction to the crowd of protesters Sunday and justified the U.S. air strikes against Aidid’s forces, Clinton said.

“The action that we took was, I think, appropriate in response to what happened. . . ,” he said. “The action that we took was designed to minimize as much as we possibly could any damage or any injury or any death to civilians.”

“I am very sorry about what happened last week, but we cannot have a situation where one of these warlords, while everybody else is cooperating, decides that he can go and slaughter 20 peacekeepers,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Somalia, U.S. military officials admitted more than 24 hours after the fact that a missile fired by a Cobra helicopter had veered out of control and hit a civilian area, injuring 12 people, the Associated Press reported from Mogadishu.

“We are facing a particularly cunning and callous enemy. We will do everything we can to avoid casualties to civilians, but we will not hesitate to do our duty to help disarm this faction,” said Col. Jim Campbell, commander of the American quick-reaction force responsible for the daylight missile attack.

The military earlier had insisted that only one missile was fired to destroy a Soviet-made rocket launcher alleged to be part of Aidid’s war machine. The truth was determined after the Cobra pilot was debriefed further, Campbell said. He blamed vague questioning for the pilot’s initial failure to mention the bad shot, the AP reported.

Mogadishu was quiet Tuesday, with food-distribution sites closed. But several relief agencies, which had evacuated their staff before the recent U.N. military actions, were reported planning to return their workers to Mogadishu today to resume the aid operation.

Clinton said that he will continue to use air power to defend international peacekeeping troops--not only in Somalia but also in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, where the United States is deploying an observer force.

Clinton also said that he still wants the United Nations to lift its embargo on arms shipments to Bosnia and predicted that Britain, France and Russia, which have blocked such a move, will come around to his position.

The Europeans rejected that proposal last month, but Clinton noted that the situation in Bosnia, where Serbs, Croats and Muslims have been fighting for more than a year, appears to have deteriorated since then.

“I still think that (lifting the arms embargo) may be the only way we can get them to have a real, meaningful cease-fire,” Clinton said.

At the United Nations, the top official in charge of peacekeeping defended the Pakistanis’ action in Somalia.

“The Pakistanis are very professional and have conducted themselves very well,” Undersecretary General Kofi Annan told a separate news conference. “We have to understand that they are in the most volatile situation.”

Annan said there was no indication that the Pakistanis were “trigger-happy” and said early evidence suggested that the troops had fired only in self-defense.

The United Nations is still investigating the incident, he noted.

Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations, Jamsheed K.A. Marker, said the troops were following standard U.N. rules of engagement when they fired into the crowd of protesters. “When they are fired upon,” the ambassador said, “they are authorized to shoot at armed gunmen even if they are hiding in crowds.”

McManus reported from Washington and Meisler reported from the United Nations.