JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Suspected African National Congress guerrillas fired six mortars into a South African radar installation Wednesday, damaging living quarters but causing no casualties, a military spokesman said.
Police Commissioner Gen. Hennie de Witt said a group of at least 21 exiled ANC guerrillas carried out the rare attack on the Klippan Radar Station after entering South Africa from neighboring Zimbabwe via Botswana.
He said one insurgent and a large quantity of weapons had been captured in follow-up operations.
'Further information obtained by police indicates that the group of terrorists were ordered from Zimbabwe to launch the attack,' he said. 'The group's orders were to return immediately to Zimbabwe after the attack.'
The pre-dawn attack occurred at the military radar installation near Mafikeng, along the border with the nominally independent black homeland of Bophuthatswana, 156 miles northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa Defense Force spokesman Col. John Rolt said.
He said some of the six mortars, fired from at least 1,000 yards outside the perimeter of the compound, struck living quarters and exploded but caused no casualties.
Army troops searching the area for the guerrillas detonated a landmine apparently planted in the attackers' retreat, he said.
'We didn't do it ourselves,' he said when asked who was responsible for the attack. 'I should imagine you could guess yourself. You could ask the ANC whether they did it. I suspect they did.'
The mortar attack was the first such incident in South African territory in recent years, he said.
