Dili, East Timor ? Soldiers fired on unarmed police Thursday in East Timor’s capital, killing nine and wounding 27, as international troops landed to try to end the fighting that threatens to push the country closer to civil war.

Among the wounded were two United Nations police advisers, part of U.N. staff trying to end an hourlong attack by soldiers on the national police headquarters in Dili, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York.

The U.N. police and military advisers negotiated a cease-fire with the Timorese soldiers, under which the police officers were to surrender their weapons and leave the building, Dujarric said.

“As the unarmed police were being escorted out, army soldiers opened fire on them, killing nine and wounding 27 others, including two U.N. police advisers,” he said.

The unrest in East Timor is the most serious threat to the desperately poor country since it won independence from Indonesia in 1999, and the attack on policemen illustrates the dangers facing peacekeepers from Australia, New Zealand, Portugal and Malaysia, the first of whom started arriving Thursday.

Today the sound of heavy machine-gun fire, mortar and small arms was heard from the hills surrounding Dili.

East Timor, the newest member of the U.N., has been plagued by unrest since more than 40 percent of its armed forces were fired in March after going on strike to protest alleged discrimination in the military.