Ten people were shot dead in Indonesia's restive eastern province Papua on Saturday in an ambush police attributed to rebels. Two others were also seriously injured in the shooting, which police said took place in a remote highland area when about 20 people — three armed with guns and others with sharp weapons — attacked a truck full of civilians.
Some of the victims were traders transporting their goods to another village, police said.
Papua's ongoing insurgency aims to gain independence from Indonesia, which took control of the former Dutch colony in the 1960s. Saturday's attack was the deadliest since March when eight telecommunications workers were shot dead.
"When the truck was stopping the KKB opened fire towards the vehicle from 50 metres away'', Papua police spokesman Ahmad Mustofa Kamal said in a statement, using an acronym to describe the area's separatist groups. "Ten people were killed and two others are severely injured'', he added.
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