Eight other people dead in gunfights in Aceh

BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): The home of Aceh deputy police chief Snr. Comr. Ramli Darwis was bombed here late Friday night causing the death of a policeman.

Deputy spokesman for Aceh Police Comr. Sudharsono however said that Ramli was not at home at the time of the explosion.

There was no immediate information on the suspected perpetrators of the attack.

The latest incident raises the number of dead to nine people since Thursday in various clashes between Indonesian security troops and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist rebels.

Sudharsono said on Friday that a joint company of Indonesian Military (TNI) and police clashed with rebels on a bridge connecting Idi Rayeuk and Blang Jambe Julok village in East Aceh, leaving two GAM members killed.

"The GAM members, identified as Tarmizi Husin, 21, and Mukhtar Pauh, 26, were shot dead in the clash, while a TNI personnel sustained a gunshot wound," Sudharsono said.

Sudharsono added that in Ara Bungong Peudada village in Bireuen regency, joint security personnel raided a house believed to be the separatists' headquarters.

He said during the raid, three armed people alleged to be GAM members, were arrested for questioning.

On Thursday afternoon, two police officers, riding a motorcycle, were hit by a spray of bullets fired by passengers of a passing Kijang van in Babah Jurong village in Kuto Baru district in Aceh Besar.

The officers, identified as Chief Brig. Junaidi and First Brig. Sujarwo, both were shot in their thighs and received treatment at Zainoel Abidin General Hospital in Banda Aceh.

Sudharsono suspected that the attackers were GAM members.

"They fled after one of the officers fired back at the their car," Sudharsono said.

Meanwhile Zulkarnaen, an activist from the Anti Violence Students Forum (Formapak), said on Friday that local residents in Kuala Simpang Ulim and Ulee Rubek in East Aceh had found four bodies, full of gunshot wounds.

The corpses were suspected to be victims of an exchange of gunfire late Thursday.

Separately, GAM spokesman for Pidie area Abu Razak said that security personnel shot two civilians during a patrol in Meureudu village in Pidie regency. (50)