Jakarta – Anti-Indonesian rebels shot dead two militiamen in the former Portuguese colony of East Timor in an ambush on a car carrying a village leader, the official Antara news agency reported on Friday.

It quoted East Timor military commander Colonel Slamat Sidabutar as saying the attack on Wednesday near Venilale in the Baucau regency took place as the village chief and two other men were traveling to a development project in a nearby village.

Rebels fired on the vehicle as it rounded a corner, Sidabutar said, adding that all three men in the car were members of the People's Resistance. The village chief survived.

The People's Resistance is believed to be one of a number of militia groups given military training to provide security in heavily-militarised East Timor.

The attack marks the latest incident in an upswing of violence in East Timor after four people were found dead in a river earlier this week and soldiers shot dead two rebels last week.

A small group of armed guerrillas and an urban-based clandestine movement still oppose Indonesia's rule in East Timor more than 22 years after Jakarta invaded the territory in the wake of a civil war.