TAEGU, South Korea — A U.S. soldier stationed in South Korea was attacked Wednesday, one of four violent episodes against U.S. servicemembers on the peninsula in a week.
An Army sergeant major sustained a cut arm when a group of middle-aged South Korean men harassed her along an off-post jogging trail, the U.S. Army reported, declining to identify the victim.
The Army required no medical treatment for the 3-inch cut to her upper arm in the Wednesday morning assault, said Army Maj. Andrew Mutter, spokesman for the 19th Theater Support Command at Camp Henry in Taegu. It is unknown what kind of weapon was used in the attack.
A wave of anti-American sentiment has surged in South Korea since last month’s acquittals of two U.S. soldiers who were involved in the June roadside crushing death of two South Korean schoolgirls by an armored vehicle.
Whether Wednesday’s attack on the soldier in Taegu was an instance of anti-American hostility stemming from the case is under investigation, Mutter said.
The incident occurred around 6:30 a.m. on a recreational path used by joggers along the Shin Chon River, near Camp Henry. The soldier was trailing her running partner when a group of six South Korean men approached from the opposite direction.
When she tried to move off the trail to avoid the group, they split in a way that blocked her intended path, forcing her to pass between them up the middle of the trail. As she went through, one of them struck her on the upper left arm.
Meanwhile, the Army late Friday said the acquittals figured in an episode of verbal and physical abuse against two U.S. soldiers who were on official business in uniform outside Seoul’s railroad station Thursday morning.
