On Monday, February 10 at 22:00 GMT, East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta was shot in the stomach at his house after two cars of renegade soldiers pulled up and began the attack. Ramos-Horta was taken immediately to a Australian-military run hospital in the country's capitol of Dili to have an emergency operation. His condition is said to be serious, but not life-threatening. Unconfirmed reports say that there was also an attack at the house of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, but that no one was killed or injured.
One renegade soldier, Alfredo Reinado, was shot dead by the President's guards after he got out of the car. Alfredo Reinado has in the past been indicted for fighting between rebel troops and police in 2006 which caused more than 150,000 to flee their homes. Reinado, in November of 2007, sent out a threat, saying that he would use forces against the government.
East Timor gained independence in 2002, 6 years after Jose Ramos-Horta and Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo won a joint Nobel Peace Prize after the campaign work to be independent from Indonesian rule when the Portuguese withdrew from East Timor in 1975.
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