Jakarta – Gunmen killed two soldiers in Indonesia's Aceh province in the latest violence to hit the troubled region where more than 50 people have been killed in the past month, the military said Thursday.
"All I can confirm is that we have received a report that two or our soldiers were killed in Pidie [district] on Tuesday," said a staff member at the Aceh military command in Lhokseumawe, the main town of the North Aceh district. The official, who identified himself as Ismail, said he was not authorized to give further information.
Pidie district military chief, Lieutenant Colonel Iskandar, was quoted by the Suara Karya daily as saying the soldiers were killed late on Tuesday night.
Iskandar said the victims were in a group of four soldiers heading to Sigli, Pidie's main town, after warning a police post in the Sakti subdistrict, 18 kilometers south of a rumored attack by separatist rebels. At least four armed men fired on the soldiers, killing the two. The other two escaped unharmed, Iskandar added.
A search for the gunmen was immediately launched, but it was called off without result the following morning to prevent panic among the local population, he added.
Military operations to track down groups who attacked troops in the districts of North and West Aceh earlier this month, sparked an exodus of up to 20,000 people, reports have said.
The violence in Aceh, mostly involving attacks on government, public and military installations as well as on soldiers and police, have left at least 59 people killed since May 2, the military chief has said. Soldiers shot into a crowd of civilian protestors on May 3, killing 41 civilians.
In Lhokseumawe, Ismail said military authorities were preparing the departure of migrant settlers who had fled their rural settlements fearing violence in the aftermath of the shooting of soldiers.
Ismail could not give the number of migrants involved but said they were being sheltered at two separate locations in Lhokseumawe.
Since Monday, the city's intercity bus terminals have been flooded by thousands of refugees, including migrants, trying to flee the violence.
Aceh is home to the Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh) movement which has been fighting for an Islamic state since the mid 1970s. Resentment against the central government and the military is strong in several districts of Aceh following the harsh decade of anti-rebel military operation in the province that was only halted last year.