U.S. trucker takes on gunmen to protect UN workers
Posted: Oct. 29, 2009
U.S. trucker takes on gunmen to protect UN workers
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Armed with an AK47, an American contract worker said Wednesday that he held off militants attacking a guesthouse in Afghanistan's capital, allowing about two dozen United Nations election workers to escape. Eleven others, including three gunmen, died.
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Chris Turner, a trucker from Kansas City, Mo., described opening fire as guests he was protecting huddled in a laundry room.
"I am armed. I carry an AK47, and I kept firing it to keep the attackers away from the group I was guarding," he told reporters. The group later jumped over a wall to take refuge in another house, he said.
Others in the group were being evacuated to Dubai on Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.
About 40 people were at the Bakhtar guesthouse in the heart of Kabul during the dawn attack. The Taliban has claimed responsibility. Eleven people died during the two-hour gun battle between militants and police, including five UN staff and three gunmen dressed in police uniforms.
Turner, 62, called his father in suburban Kansas City after the attack, 82-year-old Lionel Turner said.
"He said he was burned a little, but that he wasn't hurt," the father said. "He's got more guts than a Missouri mule."
Turner told reporters that he was a trucking contractor hired by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Most of the guests at the house were UN election workers, and Turner said he believed that's why they were targeted. "This is all about the election," he said.
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