[1] In September 1993 he was captured by American special forces conducting Operation Gothic Serpent in support of UNOSOM II and was released in January 1994.
In a speech at a church in Daytona, in January 2002, William Boykin, responsible for the operation, recounted, "There was a man in Mogadishu named Osman Atto...
Some Somalis associated with the conflict believed that Atto was a top intelligence source working as a double agent for the Americans and had been arrested in a set up as he was longer useful.
[14] During April 1996, Atto's 18 year old son who was not participating in the fighting was shot in the head by a sniper during a battle between his father and Aidid's forces.
[3] The U.S. Department of State asserted, in its Country Report for Somalia for the year 2000, that the killing of Yusuf Tallan, a former general under the Barre regime, was connected to Atto.
[16] Militiamen loyal to Atto are also alleged to be responsible for a July 14, 2001, ambush of a World Food Programme (WFP) relief convoy near Mogadishu, in which six persons were killed.
[17] In 2004, the Chairman of the Security Council Committee described Atto as an individual who exemplifies "the interaction between looting and the exploitation of Somalia's resources and infrastructure and the financing of warfare".
Atto resigned from his post of Minister for Public works and Housing during July 2006 in response to the threat of a possible attack on Mogadishu using Ethiopian troops being made by TFG leaders Abdullahi Yusuf and Ali Gedi.
The ICU were waging a guerilla war against Ethiopian troops and TFG militia, with Lego being a strategic point for ambushing these forces.