'GAM claimed responsibility for the incident and said that GAM had shot dead three soldiers.'
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 oldiers shot dead four members of the Free Acheh Movement (GAM) in a clash in the Nurussalam area of East Acheh on Wednesday night, Acheh military spokesman Major Zaenal Muttaqin told AFP. GAM officials were not immediately available for confirmation.
A 31 year-old soldier was killed in a rebel ambush in the Kuta Makmur area of North Acheh district on Wednesday, Muttaqin said, adding that another soldier and a civilian were seriously wounded.
A local GAM spokesman, Teungku Jamaika, claimed responsibility for the incident and said that GAM had shot dead three soldiers.
In another incident Wednesday, soldiers killed a GAM member and seized seven home-made bombs and two grenade launchers during a raid on a rebel base in the Tangse area of Pidie district, Muttaqin said. Wednesday's fatalities brought the death toll to 47 in the first nine days of the new year.
More than 1,700 people, mostly civilians, died last year.
Separatist unrest in Acheh on the tip of Sumatra island has been fuelled by years of human rights abuses by the military and by the central government's draining of the region's rich oil and gas resources.
© 2002 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved.
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