5 Children Reported Slain by S. African Troops in House Raid
South African troops killed five people Friday in a raid on what they said was a guerrilla safehouse, but the dead were all reported to be children.
The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), whose armed wing was the target of the raid, threatened to hit back for what it called a massacre of innocent children.
PAC Deputy Chairman Johnson Mlambo said the house in Umtata, capital of the nominally independent homeland of Transkei, belonged to a PAC member. He identified the dead, all boys, as two 12-year-olds, 16-year-old twins and a 17-year-old.
“The five . . . were all shot in the head while asleep,” he said.
Nelson Mandela, president of the African National Congress, condemned the attack as an act of thuggery but said it should not be allowed to disrupt negotiations on majority rule.
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