Ambon – Muslims from two villages on Ambon island Tuesday attacked a nearby Christian hamlet, torching empty houses, residents here said.

"Suli Bawah, where most of the houses have already been vacated by their occupants, was attacked early this morning," a local journalist said from Ambon, some 20 kilometres west of Suli.

The journalist said the attackers were from Tulehu and Tial, two nearby Muslim villages. There was an unconfirmed report that a soldier had been killed. "About 40 empty houses were set on fire in Suli," he said.

At least two armoured cars and four trucks of soldiers and police were dispatched to Suli to reestablish order, the journalist said. The security contingent had managed to leave Ambon through a road cleared of barricades. But elsewhere in Ambon, roads leading east had been blocked by barricades of stones, timber and sometimes vehicles to prevent the forces from reaching Suli.

After a lull of more than a week, blasts of mortar or homemade bombs could be heard again in the city on Tuesday, the journalist said.

Meanwhile, the secretary of the Maluku Protestant Church PG Manopo was quoted by the Jakarta Post daily as saying eight bodies, three of them soldiers, were found in the rubble near Sirisori village after clashes between two neighbouring villages – Sirisori and Ulath – on Sunday.

The five dead civilians were clad in Muslim outfits and were identified later as members of the Jihad militant Muslim force while three other bodies wore military uniforms. The military command spokesman in Ambon could not immediately confirm the death of the three soldiers.