18 Sep 2014

OPM fighter killed in Papua

3:53 pm on 18 September 2014

A member of the Free Papua Organisation has been killed in a firefight with Indonesian security officers at an airfield in Papua's Lanny Jaya district.

The Jakarta Globe reports the shootout involved about 30 OPM fighters from a group led by Puron Wenda, and police and military personnel, which wounded several people.

It reports Mr Puron has confirmed the confrontation, but is still collecting information to find out how many casualties there were.

The Jakarta Globe says the group is thought to have been responsible for shooting and killing two police officers in Lanny Jaya in July.

The Papua Police Chief Inspector Yotje Mende says the strategy is not to chase after the armed group, but to step by step reduce its area of operations.

He says they probably felt cornered and launched an attack, but security officers were prepared with back-up from an armed group in Puncak Jaya.