Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) officers troops said Friday they had shot dead two suspected separatist rebels in the jungles of Papua province.

The two suspected Free Papua Movement (OPM) members were killed in separate skirmishes on Wednesday and Thursday at Koyawage forest in the Central Highlands, said Papua military commander Major General Nurdin Zainal. Troops also seized a M-16 automatic rifle, Nurdin told ElShinta station. He said it was one of 29 firearms stolen in a raid on a military armoury in the town of Wamena on April 4.

"One of the dead rebels was believed to be an OPM commander", Zainal was quoted by AFP as saying. "Based on a red scarf tied to the rifle – a symbol of a commander – we believe that one of them is a high-ranking officer."

A group of 15 gunmen broke into the armoury during a power cut and made off with the guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Two soldiers and a suspected rebel were killed. The military has said the raid was carried out by a separatist rebel splinter group led by Titus Murib. It said some soldiers are suspected of assisting in the raid.

The Free Papua Movement, a poorly armed outfit, has waged a sporadic low-level armed revolt since Dutch colonisers ceded control of the resource-rich territory to Indonesia in 1963.