INDONESIA: Government forces exchanged fire with gunmen on Sunday and killed a suspected rebel, a day after two American school- teachers and an Indonesian were shot to death near a huge copper and gold mine run by a U.S. corporation. The police chief of Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua said a soldier was wounded in Sunday's shootout which broke out at 0800 hours local time. Officials said thick fog in the area was hampering efforts to hunt down the gunmen who also wounded at least ten other people, including six U.S. citizens, in Saturday's attack near the Grasberg mine.
10:00CDT - 31 Aug 2002
Two Americans Killed; Several Others Wounded in Ambush
INDONESIA: At least three people were killed, and fourteen wounded in an ambush near the Freeport-McMoran Copper and Gold Inc. mining project in Papua province. "An armed group, whose identity is unclear, blocked the road and then opened fire. Those who died were two Americans and one Indonesian," Papua Police Chief Made Mangku Pastika reportedly told the Reuters news service. Nine of the fourteen wounded were reported to be "foreign nationals," including several Americans. Few other official details are currently available and investigation of the incident is said to be underway at the time of this report...