Armed Mobs Attack Homes in East Timor

Militias armed with machetes, spears and slingshots set fire to dozens of houses in this capital today amid efforts by foreign troops to stem violence sparked by a band of dismissed soldiers.

Women and children ran screaming from their homes as the militias roamed the Villa Verde neighborhood, throwing rocks through the windows of the small tin-roofed houses and setting the structures ablaze. Nearby, gunfire could be heard.

Hundreds of panicked residents sought shelter in a church as Australian troops arrived in tanks to try to restore order, Black Hawk helicopters hovering overhead.

The number of casualties wasn’t known, but ambulances were seen leaving the scene with sirens blaring.

The violence triggered by the March firing of 600 soldiers, more than 40% of the 1,400-member army, has killed at least 23 people in the last week and is seen as the most serious crisis East Timor has faced since it broke from Indonesian rule in 1999.

On Friday, a mob burned the house of a government minister, killing five children and an adult. Ten unarmed police officers were slain by soldiers as they left their headquarters in downtown Dili under United Nations escort Thursday.