Seven die in predawn attack in Maluku

The Jakarta Post Ambon/Jakarta

Seven people, including five police officers, died during a predawn attack by unidentified gunmen in troubled Maluku province on Monday.

The attackers hit a Mobile Brigade (Brimob)'s operations command post in Loki village, Piru district, West Seram regency at 3 a.m. local time, or 2 a.m. Jakarta time, reportedly using military standard-issue firearms. An attacker and a civilian were also killed in the incident.

"We don't know the identity of the attackers yet, only that they numbered around six people and used automatic weapons," Maluku Police spokesman Comr. Endro Prasetyo told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

The officers killed in the incident were Brig. Roni Susanto, Brig. Hasanuddin, Brig. Teguh Arif Priyanto, First Brig. Slamet Haryanto and Chief Brig. Damanik. Five other police officers based at the post survived. They were part of East Kalimantan police deployed to Maluku.

A civilian, Simon Petrus Saepali, 23, who worked in the post as a cook, was also shot dead. Meanwhile, the police have yet to identify the dead attacker.

"The attackers might have received training as the dead from Brimob were mostly shot in the head," Endro said.

He said that from his smashed cheekbone, it looked like the dead attacker had been shot at close range by the other attackers. "Maybe, they did this to prevent us from tracking them down. If he had lived, he could have divulged their identities," Endro said.

Later on Monday, the bodies of the dead officers were taken to Bhayangkara Police Hospital in Ambon by boat.

The police also seized weapons and ammunition left behind by the attackers.

The paramilitary police officers had been based in Loki village, some 40 kilometers away from the West Seram regental capital of Piru, for the last five months.

Endro said the attackers reportedly came from the sea by speedboat, and that the attack appeared to be well planned as the attackers had concentrated their assault on the police post.

"After conducting the attack, they returned to the beach and left by speedboat," he said.

The village has no electricity as power infrastructure in the area was destroyed during the long conflict in the province. "The gunmen organized their attack in such a way that when the shooting started, the officers, who were sleeping at the time, panicked and became easy targets," he said.

The police also suspected that some of the attackers were injured in the incident after finding blood stains at the location. "So far, we're still collecting information from local people," he said.

The chief of the Maluku Police's criminal investigation unit, Sr. Comr. Bambang Hermanu, said that three witnesses had been questioned over the incident. They were speedboat driver Libid and his crew members, Anggato and Rinto.

Pattimura military commander Maj. Gen. Syarifudin Summah told journalists on Monday that he had deployed a team to Loki to find who was responsible for the attack, had placed a company of soldiers in Piri at the disposal of the police.

Separately, National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Zainuri Lubis told the Post on Monday that the police had not identified any connection between the attackers and South Maluku Republic (RMS) supporters.

"Right now, we're investigating the case to find out who the attackers were and what was their motive was as all of the Brimob officers were shot at close range in the head," Zainuri said.

So far, he said, the police could only say that the attackers were a "group of unidentified persons". "We haven't even identified the dead attacker found at the crime scene," Zainuri admitted.

The police, he said, would conduct ballistic tests on the weapons and ammunition recovered at the scene.