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Report: Raid fails to capture Haitian rebel leader

Posted on Tue, Mar. 25, 2008

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- A group of unidentified armed men raided the home of a fugitive rebel leader but failed to capture him early Tuesday, local radio reported.

Guy Philippe was nowhere to be found when the English-speaking men arrived by boat to the remote southern peninsula town of Pestel, Haiti's Radio Kiskeya reported.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Port-au-Prince, said officials would not comment. U.N. peacekeepers said they were not involved.

Philippe, a former presidential candidate whose rebel band helped oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004, is being sought in connection with a pending drug indictment in U.S. federal court. He evaded capture last year in a raid led by U.S. and Haitian authorities.

Shortly after the raid, Philippe told a local radio show in October that he was the victim of a political plot and dared U.S. agents to kill him.