SEOUL, Dec 16: A US army officer was attacked by knife-wielding South Korean men outside a US base here on Sunday night amid simmering anti-American sentiment.

Three South Koreans in their early 20s attacked the unarmed lieutenant colonel as he left Yongsan, the main US military base in central Seoul, and was walking to his home, the US military said.

The officer was treated at a US army hospital for a cut on his left side and minor abrasions and bruises, it said. South Korean police were looking for the attackers.

It was the worst attack on US military personnel since three soldiers were set-upon by South Korean anti-US protestors in a subway train in mid-September.

The unprovoked attack came amid growing anti-US sentiment here sparked by the recent acquittal of two US soldiers charged over the deaths of two South Korean girls in a road accident involving a US military vehicle.

The target of Sunday’s attack was Lieutenant Colonel Steven Boylan, the chief public affairs officer for the US Eighth Army, a US army source told AFP.

The attack began when the three Koreans insulted the officer and cursed at him in English as they approached him in an underpass, according to the US military statement.

The officer did not respond to the provocation, attempting to pass the Koreans peacefully, but they attacked him from behind, it said.

One of the Koreans then punched the officer between his shoulders, shoving him headfirst into the underpass wall, while a second man lunged at him, attempting to stab him in the stomach with a five-inch knife, it said.

“He was able to twist away, but sustained a minor cut to his left side where the knife grazed him,” it said.

Boylan struck the knife-wielding attacker once in self-defense and was able to flee the scene. He was back at his desk Monday, feeling shaken and suffering from a headache, but declined to discuss the attack.—AFP