In Black Hawk Down, what is the military operation called that begins the 1993 battle?

In Black Hawk Down, the military operation that begins the 1993 battle is Operation Gothic Serpent.

Ridley Scott’s 2001 film dramatizes the Battle of Mogadishu, part of the U.S.-led mission in Somalia. The operation’s objective was to capture senior lieutenants of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid during a daylight raid in Mogadishu on 3 October 1993.

The operation went wrong after two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters were shot down. Rangers and Delta Force soldiers then fought through the city while attempting to reach the crash sites and recover the crews. The film is based largely on Mark Bowden’s book Black Hawk Down.

Operation Gothic Serpent was separate from Operation Restore Hope, the earlier humanitarian intervention in Somalia. That distinction matters because both names are associated with U.S. military activity in Somalia during the early 1990s.