Port Moresby: Indonesian security forces recovered the bodies of four government soldiers who were killed in a separatist attack while searching for a New Zealand pilot taken hostage by the rebels in Indonesia’s restive Papua region, officials said.

The four elite army troops were killed on Saturday after attackers from the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, ambushed 36 government soldiers in Nduga district in the mountainous Papua Highlands province.

Security forces found the bodies on Wednesday, including that of a soldier who fell into a 15-metre-deep ravine, and evacuated them to a hospital in Timika, a mining city in neighbouring Central Papua province, said Papua military spokesperson Colonel Herman Taryaman.

The troops were ambushed by the rebels while searching for Phillip Mark Mehrtens, a New Zealand pilot who was abducted by the rebels in February, Taryaman said.

The rebels shot a soldier who fell into the ravine, and launched a second attack while troops were trying to get the body out, he added.

Source- NZ Herald

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