Drug smuggler kills three police in Vietnam

A drug smuggler in a village near the Laos border shot and killed three police officers before being killed himself, police confirmed Tuesday. Dao Van Minh, head of the Hoa Binh Province police's drug crime department, said drug smuggler Vang A Khua was killed along with three officers Friday in the village of Hang Kia.

Tuoi Tre newspaper quoted Colonel Bui Van Son, head of the Hoa Binh police department, as saying police had surrounded the house of Khua, 54, on Friday morning. Police ordered Khua to surrender, but he refused to leave, keeping 11 family members in his house as well.

Police said 10 of Khua's relatives eventually left the house and gave themselves up. When his son Vang Cua, 35, tried to surrender, Khua fired on police with an AK-47 assault rifle, killing three officers and wounding four more.

The police had kept one of Son's sons with them in the belief this would protect them.

"We thought if his son went with us, he would not dare to fire, because he would be shooting at his son," Minh said. "But we guessed wrong."

Khua was killed in the ensuing shootout. Minh said the four wounded officers were now out of critical condition.

Hang Kia lies in the district of Mai Chau, a popular tourist destination. Like much of the district's population, Khua belongs to the Hmong ethnic minority.

The area is an important route for smuggling drugs, mainly heroin, from Laos through Vietnam and into China. In Hang Kia village alone, 60 people have been arrested for drug smuggling in the past decade, with 10 of them sentenced to death.