Palmisano, a cameraman for Italy’s public television station, RAI, was shot and killed on the road to the Mogadishu airport, where he and reporter Carmen Lasorella were going to cover the withdrawal of United Nations troops. It is believed that the attack on the two Italians was part of a dispute called the “banana war” between two rival banana export firms, Somalfruit and Sombana. The journalists were riding in a car belonging to Somalfruit when gunmen riding in Sombana’s “technical”–a vehicle mounted with heavy weapons–attacked them. Witnesses report that Palmisano was mistaken for a Somalfruit executive.