Gunmen opened fire Friday on a military helicopter in Indonesia’s restive Papua region as it tried to retrieve the bodies of soldiers killed in an earlier attack, a military official said. “A Puma SA-330 military helicopter was shot by gunmen at 08:15am local time (2315 GMT Thursday) as it landed in Sinak,” Jayapura city military airbase chief Diah Yudhanardi told AFP. The helicopter was forced to return to Jayapura without picking up the seven soldiers shot dead in Sinak on Thursday, he added. “A technician on board suffered a light shrapnel wound to his left hand, while the two others, pilot and co-pilot were all fine,” Yudhanardi said. “We’re still trying to arrange another helicopter to fly back later today to Sinak to transport the seven bodies,” he added. The seven were killed when armed attackers opened fire at nine soldiers walking to an airport in Sinak at around 10:30am (0130 GMT) on Thursday.
