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Bodyguard dies saving U.N. staff

KABUL, Afghanistan (UPI) -- A bodyguard who was killed fighting Afghan militants as they attacked a U.N. guesthouse in Kabul saved many lives, officials said.

The gunmen, who opened fire after storming into the Bekhtar Guesthouse in the morning as the guests slept, killed five U.N. workers but Louis Maxwell, 27 -- a civilian bodyguard holding only an assault rifle and a walkie-talkie -- held off the attackers for about 90 minutes, The Times of London reported.

Security officials said Maxwell, a former U.S. serviceman, and other security guards helped save most of the more than 30 U.N. staff in the facility.

Maxwell, a father of two, was wounded and running low on ammunition when he jumped from a second-story balcony to safety -- but just then he heard a woman's scream, the report said. He ran back into the burning building to help her but that was the last he was seen alive.

The woman, a U.N. volunteer, apparently died in an explosion and it is believed that was when Maxwell also was killed.

Besides the five U.N. staff members, four Afghan guards and three insurgents also died in the assault.

The other U.N. workers escaped through the back of the guesthouse, while Maxwell fought off the attackers. Security personnel Christian Sobotka, Ashbar Gurung and Laurance Mefful helped the other U.S. workers. Mefful, a Ghanian, later died, the report said.

Paul O'Hanlon, a U.N. security specialist, said Maxwell "escaped himself when he thought the job was done, then he went back in and died."

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 11/06/2009

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