PEACEKEEPERS LEAVE SOMALIA

Singing as they sailed from Mogadishu under escort by U.S. and Italian troops, 903 Bangladeshi soldiers ended their frustrating U.N. peacekeeping tour in Somalia. The remaining U.N. contingent of 1,500 Pakistanis is scheduled to depart Thursday, the last of a 38,000-strong force that failed to establish a democratic government. Once the peacekeepers are gone, the country's warring clans are expected to fight over the Mogadishu's air and sea ports. The Somali people, meanwhile, will fend for themselves. "All of us hoped against hope the Somalis would get their house in order" by now, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman John Shalikashvili said today in Washington. "They're on their own." TIME Defense correspondent Mark Thompson says the general's epitaph may apply to any risky U.S. humanitarian rescue mission to come: "It was a bleak and compelling testament that there is an end to our patience."