Kristo Langker, Kiwirok, West Papua – On September 25, 2025, Lamek Taplo, the guerilla leader of a wing of the West Papua National Liberation Army (Tentara Pembebasan Nasional Papua Barat, or TPNPB), left the jungle with his command to launch a series of raids on Indonesian military posts.
Indonesia had established three new military posts in the Star Mountains region in the past year, according to NGO Human Rights Monitor, with sources on the ground telling Drop Site News that nearby civilian houses and facilities – including a church, schools, and a health clinic – had been forcibly occupied in support of the military build-up.
Despite being severely outgunned, the command shot five Indonesian soldiers, killing one, while suffering no casualties themselves, according to Taplo and other members of his group. The raids continued for three more days. The command shot the fuselage of a helicopter and burned five buildings that Taplo's group claimed were occupied by Indonesian security forces.
Taplo was killed less than three weeks later by an apparent drone strike. During an October 13 interview a week before his death, Taplo, a former teacher himself, told Drop Site why TPNPB targeted a school: "It's because they (Indonesian military) used it as their base. There's no teacher – only Indonesians. I know, because I was the teacher there, too... Indonesia sent "teachers." However, they're actually military intelligence."
Indonesia has laid claim to the western half of New Guinea since the 1960s with the backing of the U.S. For the past year, the Indonesian military has ramped up its indiscriminate attacks on subsistence farming villages, especially those that deny Indonesian rule.
The military presence has been growing exponentially after the October 2024 inauguration of President Prabowo Subianto, who is implicated in historic massacres in Papua from his time as commander of Indonesia's special forces – called Komando Pasukan Khusus or "Kopassus." According to witnesses interviewed in Kiwirok and its surrounding hamlets, and documented in videos, there are now snipers stationed along walking tracks, and civilians have been shot and killed attempting to retrieve their pigs.
Indonesia immediately retaliated against TPNPB's September attacks by sending two consumer-grade DJI Mavic drones, rigged with servo motors, to drop Pindad-manufactured hand grenades. One drone targeted a hut that Taplo claimed did not house TPNPB but belonged to civilians. No one was killed as the grenade bounced off the sheet metal roof and exploded a few meters away. The other drone flew over a group of TPNPB raising the Morning Star flag of West Papua but was taken down by the guerrillas before a grenade could be dropped.
Holding the downed drone and grenade, Taplo likened the ordeal to Moses parting the Red Sea for the escaping Israelites: "It's like Firaun and Moses... It was a miracle." Then joking, "The bomb (grenade) was caught since it's like the cucumber we eat."
Over the next few weeks, a series of heavier aerial bombardments followed. Videos taken by Taplo show two Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano turboprop aircraft darting through the air, followed by the thunderous sound of ordnance hitting the mountains.
Despite the fact that thousands of West Papuans have been killed in bombings like these since the 1970s, Taplo's videos are the first to ever capture an aerial bombardment from the ground in West Papua, owing to the extreme isolation of the interior. In fact, many highland West Papuans' first contact with the outside world was with Indonesian military campaigns.
Ostensibly a counter-insurgency operation against a guerrilla independence movement, these bombings are primarily hitting civilians – tribal communities of subsistence farmers. The few fighters Indonesia is targeting are poorly armed – lacking bullets, let alone bombs – and live on ancestral land with their families. The most ubiquitous weapon among these groups remains the bow and arrow.
Taplo told Drop Site the bombings began on Monday, October 6. "Firstly they (Indonesia) did an unorganized attack: they dropped the bomb randomly... they just dropped it everywhere. You can see where the smoke was coming from. Even though it was an Indonesian military house, they just dropped it on there anyway. That was the first one; then they came back. The first place bombed after was a civilian house; the second was our base."
"I live with the people, because there's no military to protect my people"