10 rebels, two soldiers killed in ambush
10 rebels, two soldiers killed in ambush
Agencies, Lhokseumawe, Aceh
Government troops ambushed dozens of rebel fighters in Aceh
Thursday, killing 10 insurgents and losing two soldiers in some
of the worst fighting since the government launched its offensive
a month ago, the military said.
The firefight followed an overnight siege by troops of
suspected separatists in the remote Cot Kruet area in North Aceh,
said military spokesman Lt. Col. Achmad Yani Basuki.
"Troops ambushed the rebels following tips from locals that
the rebels planned to pass through the village," said Yani.
The soldiers killed were identified as Second Sgt. Budianto
and Pvt. Suwarto. There have been 26 soldiers killed since the
operation to crush the rebels began on May 19.
Soldiers confiscated six AK-47 assault rifles, an SS-1 and an
M-16 rifles plus documents belonging to the Free Aceh Movement
(GAM) rebels,
The gunfight took place at dawn around 4 a.m. when a group
patrolling troops from the army's 408th Battalion heard dozens of
suspected rebels visited a house of a local resident, identified
as Solihin.
The house was set on fire during the armed clash, which
occurred around 10 kilometers (6 miles) from a giant natural gas
field tapped by U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil Oil.
A spokeswomen for the company told AP operations at the field
were unaffected by the fighting, 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of
Lhokseumawe, the capital of North Aceh.
On Wednesday troops killed another two rebels during a clash
at Pasi Raja in South Aceh, Yani said. Two soldiers were injured.
Police shot dead a rebel at Cot Punti in West Aceh district on
Wednesday, local police chief Mukhtar Harun said.
Also on Wednesday two bodies with gunshot wounds were found
separately in Aceh Besar and West Aceh, aid workers said.
A hospital worker at Langsa in Central Aceh said three bodies
bearing torture marks and gunshot wounds were taken to the
hospital by Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) volunteers on Thursday.
As of Wednesday PMI had evacuated 194 bodies.
Also on Thursday, a police officer was detained for allegedly
raping a 15-year-old student in Bireuen, northern Aceh, on June
12, said Aceh police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Sayed Husaini.
At least 40,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in
Aceh's countryside or were evacuated to the northern towns of
Bireuen and Lhokseumawe because of the continuing fighting.
The guerrillas have been battling for an independent state on
the northern tip of Sumatra island since 1976. At least 12,000
have been killed since then.