3 killed as S. Africa rebels attack rural police station

A group of 40 black nationalist guerrillas overran a rural police station in a black tribal homeland, killing at least three policemen with automatic-weapons fire, a police spokesman reports. The police station at Mabopane is 30 miles north of Pretoria in the tribal homeland of Bophuthatswana.

The raiding party, armed with Soviet-built weapons, was believed one of the largest ever to hit a target inside South Africa or its tribal homelands, which are enclaves within South Africa.

A police spokesman said the attackers could have been members of the outlawed African National Congress, which has been responsible for 37 bomb and gun attacks in South Africa since January.