|
 even suspected rebels were shot dead in a shootout following an ambush on a unit of soldiers on their way to raid a suspected rebel hideout in the Jiem Jiem area in Pidie district on Monday, said an Acheh military spokesman, Major Zaenal Muttaqin.
One of the dead victims was a member of the women's battalion of the separatist Free Acheh Movement (GAM), Muttaqin said, adding that four firearms were found with the bodies.
A hunt is ongoing to search for the remaining attackers, he added.
Another suspected rebel was shot dead by troops on patrol at Nurussalam in East Acheh on Monday, Muttaqin said.
The man was killed after eight rebels ambushed a motorcycle patrol of eight soldiers in the area, Muttaqin said, adding that a handgun had been found on the body.
The local GAM Spokesman, Ishak Daud, denied the victim was a rebel fighter and said that according to reports he had received he was a civilian driver.
On Monday, two bodies with gunshot wounds were found in the Gunung Seumancang area of South Acheh, a local humanitarian activist said.
The body of an unidentified man with a gunshot wound in his chest was found at Keude Bieng 10 kilometers (six miles) south of Banda Acheh on Monday, another humanitarian activist said.
Volunteer workers said Tuesday they had collected four bodies with gunshot wounds on Monday night from the Seulimuen area near Banda Acheh.
"All the victims had gunshot wounds," one of the workers told AFP.
Violence involving government and rebel forces in Acheh left some 1,700 people dead last year. The two latest deaths bring the known death toll for the first three weeks of this year to 123.
Jakarta last year granted the resource-rich province at the northernmost tip of Sumatra island greater self-rule and a larger share of oil and gas revenues in an effort to reduce separatist sentiment.
It also allowed the province to implement Islamic law but ruled out independence as the GAM demands.
© 2002 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved. |
