Ex-soldiers storm Haiti police academy, kill three
( 2001-07-29 09:54 ) (7 )

Six former members of Haiti's military stormed a police academy barracks early on Saturday, killing three police officers and wounding several others, police sources said.

Police and other witnesses said the armed group arrived at the academy in suburban Petionville between 3:30 a.m. and 4 a.m. and attacked a SWAT-team compound within the academy, where they shot and killed a police chief, an officer, and a SWAT-team student. After the shootout, the former soldiers fled.

It was not immediately known why the attack occurred. Police officials declined to comment.

The injured were taken to a nearby hospital where they were treated for minor wounds.

Haiti's army has been a touchy subject since a military coup ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide when he first served as president in 1991. Aristide disbanded the military after a US-led invasion returned him to power in 1994.

Last March, several thousand former military officers seized the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, to call for Aristide's departure, saying he was unable to control an escalating crime problem.

Aristide was re-elected to the presidency last November in an election shunned by major opposition parties, which have also called for the army's return. He was first elected president in 1990 after spearheading a national grass-roots movement that helped end decades of dictatorship and military rule. Aristide ended his first term in 1996 and then passed the mantle to his elected protege, Rene Preval.