'Anti-Insurgency' Operation Begins in East Timor

Australian troops backed by helicopters hunted Thursday for suspects in the attacks on East Timor's top leaders, as new details emerged on the strike that left the president critically wounded.

The operation, which also involved U.N. police officers and armored personnel carriers, took place on the outskirts of Dili and involved troops combing through the jungle searching for suspects, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

U.N. spokesman Alison Cooper confirmed "anti-insurgency" operations had begun.

Meanwhile, in one of the most detailed accounts yet of Monday's assassination attempt, a guard described how he killed fugitive rebel commander Alfredo Reinado before President Jose Ramos-Horta returned from an early morning walk on the beach.

The rebels jumped from two cars, firing machine guns as they stormed the president's compound. "Traitor! Traitor!" they shouted, hunting for the Nobel Peace Prize winner.

"I shouted Alfredo's name and then opened fire at his head with my machine gun because he was wearing a bulletproof vest," the guard told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is prohibited from talking to the media about the attack.

"I fired many times, I don't know how many times," said the guard, who was back on duty Tuesday in his uniform.

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• State of emergency declared
• Ramos-Horta wounded

But gunmen lying in a ditch then shot the president in the chest and stomach.