Soldier killed in Papua

Jakarta: Suspected separatist rebels have fatally shot a soldier in Indonesia’s restive Papua province, the Indonesian military says.

Insurgents opened fire at an army outpost in the Intan Jaya district, wounding the 22yearold soldier, who died on the way to hospital, military spokesman Colonel Gusti Nyoman Suriastawa said yesterday.

Papua has been the scene of a lowlevel separatist insurgency since the 1960s, but clashes between rebels and government forces have intensified in the past several years.