Kiwi troops tracking Timor gunmen

5:25 PM

New Zealand troops serving in East Timor are tonight involved in an operation to locate the killers of a UN peacekeeper.

A Nepalese soldier attached to the New Zealand battalion based at Suai died in hospital from injuries sustained in a gunfight with militia men yesterday.

Three other Nepalese peacekeepers and an East Timorese civilian were wounded in the skirmish which took place north-east of Suai on the border with West Timor.

The chief UN military observer and senior New Zealand officer in East Timor, Brigadier Lou Gardiner, says Kiwi soldiers are back in the bush looking for those responsible.

He says there is an increased sense of urgency amongst the New Zealand units hunting the perpetrators of the shootings.

No New Zealanders were involved in the initial battle.

- IRN