GENEVA (AP) - Two U.N. land mine clearers were killed and two Sudanese soldiers wounded in an ambush in southern Sudan, the head of their agency said Tuesday. A convoy carrying the mine clearers was attacked as it was returning to base camp, said Henri Leu, president of the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action. The assailants have not been identified.Leu said the area was not considered particularly dangerous. The group had been working there since Aug. 1, and the trip was routine, he said. Leu said the foundation was suspending its work pending an investigation. It was the first time the foundation lost any employees since it was founded in 1997, he said. The U.N.'s top envoy for Sudan, Jan Pronk, said it was a ``cowardly attack.''
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U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack also deplored the killings. ``Certainly it is a tragedy when those trying to help people in distress lose their lives,'' he said.
Leu said he could not confirm reports that the rebel Lord's Resistance Army was behind the attack. ``It could also have been an attack by highway bandits who wanted to rob our team, but it also could have been aimed at interrupting our work,'' he said
The organization had been clearing 400 miles of roads in the Juba area so that the World Food Program could deliver its relief supplies safely, he said.