SAfrican troops fight poachers slaughtering rhino

By MICHELLE FAUL | July 22, 2011 | 9:30 AM EDT

In this photograph taken Tuesday July 19, 2011 armed soldiers stage a night patrol at an isolated outpost in the Kruger National Park's Sabi River valley, close to the Mozambican border, for visiting press. Armed soldiers, park officials, judicial, customs and tax officers are coordinating a multi-pronged strategy in a bid to end rhino poaching in the country's flagship park. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)

KRUGER NATIONAL PARK, South Africa (AP) — They used to rely on snares, poison and shotguns to kill rhinos for their horns. Now international crime syndicates are arming poachers with night-vision goggles and AK-47 assault rifles as the price for rhino horn surpasses gold.

When the crackle of gunfire signals the deathof yet another rhino, radios squawk to life here in South Africa's flagship Kruger National Park and soldiers ready for pre-dawn patrols.

"They've become very aggressive," Ken Maggs, head of the South African government environmental crime investigation unit, said of the poachers. "They leave notes for us written in the sand, warnings. That indicates it is an escalating issue ... They are coming in prepared to fight."

The government of South Africa, home to 90 percent of the rhinos left on the continent, is fighting back. Since more than 140 troops were deployed in April, the number of rhinos killed in Kruger has dropped from 40 in March and 30 in April to 15 in May and just two in June. Fifteen alleged poachers also have been killed this year,