JAYAPURA, Indonesia – Five suspected rebels have been killed in a clash with Indonesian soldiers in restive Papua province.
Local army chief Maj. Gen. Christian Zebua said the clash occurred Friday in the mountainous district of Lanny Jaya when a group of gunmen ambushed a passing army motorcade in Pirime subdistrict.
Zebua said the motorcade was composed of soldiers who were assigned to hunt rebels who had attacked a group of police on Sunday in Lanny Jaya, killing two officers.
A low-level insurgency for an independent Papua has continued since the region in the western part of New Guinea was transferred from Dutch to Indonesian rule in the 1960s.