Soldiers Attack Police in East Timor

Soldiers shot unarmed police in East Timor’s capital Thursday, killing nine and wounding 27, as international troops landed to try to end fighting between the 800-member army and about 600 soldiers who had been fired.

Homes and business were set ablaze.

The death toll in four days of violence in the world’s youngest nation rose to 20 when, witnesses said, assailants broke the windows of a house, sprayed gasoline and set the structure on fire with six people inside.

Among the wounded at the police station were two United Nations police advisors, part of U.N. staff trying to end an hourlong attack by soldiers on the national police headquarters in Dili, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York.

The U.N. police and military advisors negotiated a cease-fire with the soldiers, under which the police officers were to surrender their weapons and leave the building, Dujarric said.

“As the unarmed police were being escorted out, army soldiers opened fire,” he said.

Dujarric said the soldiers were current troops. They apparently suspected the police of allying themselves with the fired soldiers.

“The mission reports that U.N. personnel were able to rescue some 62 additional East Timor police officers, and they are now being sheltered in the U.N. compound,” Dujarric said.

Thursday’s deaths brought to 25 the death toll in fighting since April. The violence was the most serious to hit East Timor since its break from Indonesia in 1999.

Dozens of foreigners fled the country. The U.S. Embassy has ordered the evacuation of all nonessential personnel and advised American citizens to leave.

Hundreds of people at the main airport cheered earlier in the day as an Australian plane delivered the first international troops sent to try to keep the country from civil war.

The 130 Australian commandos fanned out to secure the airport as gun battles raged elsewhere in the capital, killing at least three people and wounding more than a dozen.

Australia said it would send as many as 1,300 troops, along with ships, helicopters and armored personnel carriers. Smaller forces were promised by New Zealand, Portugal and Malaysia.

East Timor has been plagued by unrest since more than 40% of its armed forces were fired in March after going on strike to protest alleged discrimination against soldiers from the country’s west.