Gunmen killed eight soldiers Thursday in two separate attacks against the Indonesian army in the restive easternmost province of Papua, the military said. About 20 assailants armed with guns and machetes attacked a group of nine soldiers walking to Ilaga Airport in Puncak district to collect communication equipment, killing seven, provincial army spokesman Lt. Col. Jansen Simanjuntak said. Two civilians also were shot in the attack, but their fate was unclear, he said. He said earlier that the two had been killed. About an hour before that attack, gunmen stormed an army post in Tinggi Nambut, a village in neighboring Puncak Jaya district, and fatally shot one soldier and injured another.—AP
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