30 arrested in Afghan raid

February 24, 2004|Associated Press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Hundreds of police, supported by US forces, searched door to door through a village yesterday for the lone gunman who opened fire at a US company's helicopter over the weekend, killing the pilot and wounding three others.

Police arrested 30 suspected Taliban rebels, and the Afghan government decried a "desperate trend" in terrorist attacks but said the threat would not undermine June elections hoped to bring democracy after two decades of war.

Insurgents of the former ruling Taliban regime and Al Qaeda have launched repeated attacks in the lawless south and east of the country in the past year, despite the efforts of 11,000 US-led coalition forces to hunt them down.

On Sunday, an unidentified man with an assault rifle emerged from a crowd of onlookers as four Louis Berger Group employees were about to take off in a helicopter from Thaloqan village in Kandahar province after visiting a health clinic under construction.

"One person stepped out of the crowd with an AK-47 [assault rifle] and fired 20 to 30 shots," US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Hilferty said in the capital, Kabul.

Australian pilot Mark Burdorf, 45, was hit first and killed. A British security guard and an Afghan interpreter fired back, but the attacker escaped.

The guard and an American construction supervisor were seriously wounded and are being treated at the coalition's Bagram headquarters north of Kabul. The Afghan had minor injuries and was treated at the scene.

Officials would not release their identities.

As many as 100 US soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division helped Afghan security forces hunt for the attacker, Hilferty said.

Kandahar police General Salim Khan said police arrested 30 suspected Taliban members and seized five AK-47 assault rifles in Thaloqan -- thought to be a hotbed for Taliban and supporters of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a key Taliban ally.

Hilferty urged tribal elders and other locals to hand over the assailant. He said he thought the attack was carried out by "one bad person" and was not coordinated.