PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CMC):
UNIDENTIFIED GUNMEN have shot and injured three Chilean soldiers of the United Nations peacekeeping force in an ambush in the northern part of the Caribbean nation U.N. officials said yesterday.
U.N. civilian spokesman, DamianOnzes-Cardona, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the three soldiers were part of a patrol that was conducting a road reconnaissance mission on Friday in the northern town of Plaisance, as part of an overall plan to secure the area ahead of the planned elections later this year.
"Two U.N. soldiers received minor injuries and the other one more seriously hit in the left arm was repatriated to Chile on Sunday," said Cardona.
"U.N. troops returned fire, but the gunmen had time to flee," he said, adding that an inquiry into the incidents would be held.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but political observers fear illegal armed groups that withdrew into several provincial towns over the past months might be behind the attack.
Haitian police and U.N. troops had earlier chased the groups out of the capital. Cardona said the other two wounded peacekeepers were expected to report for duty next Monday.
At least seven U.N. peacekeepers including two from Sri Lanka and Nepal and one Ecuadorian soldier have been killed, while 30 others have been wounded since the deployment of the U.N. mission to stabilise Haiti in June 2004.
