Papua rebels shoot American pilot dead, torch plane to send ‘message’ to US
AI Summary
Rebels in Papua, Indonesia, killed an American pilot and burned a civilian plane as a message to the US and Indonesian governments. The separatist conflict in resource-rich Papua has intensified with more frequent and deadly attacks fueled by better weaponry.
Rebels in Indonesia’s restive easternmost region of Papua on Thursday shot dead an American pilot and set a civilian plane on fire in what a spokesperson for a local separatist group described as a “message” to the US and Indonesian governments. A low-level battle for independence from Indonesia has long raged in the resource-rich western half of Papua, where attacks by independence fighters have grown deadlier and more frequent as they have procured better weaponry. Sebby Sambom, a...