International peacekeepers are on their way to East Timor while the U.S. and Australian embassies ordered most staff to leave after escalating gun battles between ex-soldiers and the military.

East Timor has been plagued by violence since nearly 600 soldiers were fired earlier in 2006 after going on strike to protest against alleged ethnic discrimination in the military.

East Timorese soldiers run for cover on Wednesday during a gunfight with rebellious ex-soldiers outside Dili, the capital of East Timor.
(Amori Antonio/Associated Press)

A series of gun battles this week killed two people and wounded nine others in the Timorese capital, Dili.

"We can't control the situation," said East Timor's foreign minister, Jose Ramos Horta.

Australia sends battalion

(CBC)

The government requested troops from Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Portugal to help "disarm renegade troops and police rebelling against the state."

The Australian peacekeepers were expected to arrive soon in Dili. 

According to the Financial Times, Australia is sending a battalion, or up to 1,300 troops. Portugal said it was sending a police unit while New Zealand also pledged police support. It was not clear what Malaysia's role would be in the force.

Threat to start guerrilla war

The former soldiers say they were discriminated against because they come from the west of the country and have different ethnicities than military leaders, who mostly come from the east.

A government commission is looking into the ex-soldiers' allegations, but has yet to release results.

After deadly riots in April, some of the ex-soldiers fled Dili for the country's rugged hill country and threatened guerrilla warfare if they didn't get their jobs back.

Latest violence starts with ambush

On Tuesday, they ambushed troops on the outskirts of the capital, sparking the gun fights that left at least two people dead.

On Wednesday, there was more violence on the west side of Dili, which later spread south, close to the home of the top military chief, Brig.-Gen. Taur Matan Ruak, officials and witnesses said.

Timor is the world's newest nation. It voted for independence from Indonesia in 1999 after 24 years of brutal occupation that human rights groups say left as many as 200,000 dead.

Australia led a UN-backed intervention force to East Timor to control violence by pro-Indonesian militias after East Timorese voted for independence. More than 1,000 people died in the violence following the vote.

East Timor is a former colony of Portugal.