Gunmen Attack Indonesia Workers Near Freeport Mine

TIMIKA, Indonesia (AP) ⿿ Unidentified gunmen attacked a car carrying workers Thursday near Freeport-McMoRan's gold and copper mine in eastern Indonesia, wounding six people, police and a company spokesman said.

Papua police spokesman Col. Wachjono said two workers were wounded ⿿ each hit on the chest and leg ⿿ while four others were injured by broken glass in the morning attack. Police are questioning the witnesses, Wachjono said.

Ramdani Sirait, a spokesman for PT Freeport Indonesia said the victims were employees from CV. Yawapu Jaya, a local contractor to the mine that belongs to the indigenous Kamoro tribe.

It was the second attack this week and the third this year near the world's largest gold mine in restive Papua province where a low-level insurgency is fighting for independence.

A police officer was fatally shot and another wounded Tuesday. Two contract workers were killed last month.

Fifteen people have been killed and 54 others were wounded in a series of gunmen attacks within the working area of the company since July 2009, Sirait said.

The mine, run by a subsidiary of the Phoenix, Arizona-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. has been hit with arson, roadside attacks and blockades since operations began in the 1970s.

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