Police: Gunmen attack bus convoy near Freeport gold mine in Indonesia, wounding 7

Shooting near Freeport mine in Indonesia wounds 7

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Gunmen attacked a convoy near the world’s largest gold mine in Papua on Sunday, wounding at least seven people including a foreigner, Indonesian police said, the latest in a string of attacks on the U.S.-owned mine.

The convoy of two buses and four other vehicles of the mine operator Freeport were ambushed Sunday morning as they traveled from the Grasberg mine to Kuala Kencana neighborhood in Timika town, said Papua police spokesman Col. Agus Rianto.

He said those wounded included an American, four policemen and two civilians — a worker and a girl.

Freeport said in an e-mail statement from its Jakarta office that nine people were hurt in the ambush and three required hospitalization but did not suffer life-threatening injuries. The other six were discharged after treatment of minor injuries.

It said the incident died not affect operations at the mine.

The company declined to comment on whether an American was among those wounded.

Rianto said the American, whose left eye was hit by shrapnel, and two policemen were flown to the capital Jakarta for treatment.

“Police and soldiers are hunting down the perpetrators who attacked the convey from both sides of the road,” the police chief said.

The attack was the latest in a string of ambushes on the road linking the mine with Timika that have claimed eight lives since July 2009, including an Australian technician.

The mine, run by a subsidiary of the Phoenix, Ariz.-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc, has been repeatedly targeted with arson, roadside bombs and blockades since production began in the impoverished province of Papua in the 1970s.

The region is also scene of a low-level insurgency seeking independence from the Indonesian government.