<P> Aidid's men received some expert guidance in shooting down helicopters from fundamentalist Islamic soldiers, most likely Al - Qaeda, who had experience fighting Russian helicopters during the Soviet - Afghan War . A document recovered from Al - Qaeda operative Wadih el - Hage's computer "made a tentative link between al - Qaeda and the killing of American servicemen in Somalia," and were used to indict bin Laden in June 1998 . Al - Qaeda defector Jamal al - Fadl also claimed that the group had trained the men responsible for shooting down the U.S. helicopters . </P> <P> Four and a half years after the Battle of Mogadishu, in an interview in May 1998, bin Laden disparaged the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Somalia . While he had previously claimed responsibility for the ambush, bin Laden denied having orchestrated the attack on the U.S. soldiers in Mogadishu but expressed delight at their deaths in battle against Somali fighters . </P> <P> In a 2011 interview, Moktar Ali Zubeyr, the leader of the Somali militant Islamist group Al - Shabaab, said that three al Qaeda leaders were present during the battle of Mogadishu . Zubeyr named Yusef al - Ayeri, Saif al - Adel, and Sheikh Abu al Hasan al - Sa'idi as providing help through training or participating in the battle themselves . </P> <P> In 1999, writer Mark Bowden published the book Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, which chronicles the events that surrounded the battle . The book was based on his series of columns for The Philadelphia Inquirer about the battle and the men who fought . </P>

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