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Police shot and killed two suspected terrorists on Friday during a gun battle along a road in the district of Aceh Besar near the provincial capital, National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri said.

“The Aceh Police in a joint effort with the National Police’s antiterror detachment were able to kill two suspects and arrest eight others,” Bambang told reporters in Jakarta.

He said the suspected militants are believed to have planned an attack on a local police station in the Leupung subdistrict in Aceh Besar, but were stopped by police at a roadside checkpoint about 26 kilometers from the provincial capital of Banda Aceh en route to Meulaboh on the western coast.

Police seized six firearms, including an AK-47, an M16 and a Glock pistol. “The handgun belongs to Boas,” Bambang said, referring to police officer Boas Woysiri, who was killed during a shootout in Lamkabeu, Aceh Besar, on March 4. Two other police officers were killed and 10 more wounded in that exchange.

Bambang said he issued orders for Aceh Police to boost their vigilance because “we suspect that there are still other terror suspects who are trying to escape from Aceh because we are hunting them.”

Speaking at the site of the shooting, Aceh Police Chief Insp. Gen. Aditya Warman identified the two dead suspects as Encang Kurnia, a k a Jaja, a k a Umar Yusuf, from Lampung, and Pura Sudarma, a k a Muttaqin, from Bandung, West Java. “Jaja has long been on the wanted list for several incidents outside of Aceh Police’s jurisdiction,” Aditya said, without providing further details. Police sources said Jaja, who had participated in militant training in the southern Philippines, was implicated in the Atrium mall bomb attack in Senen, Central Jakarta, in 2001.

Aditya said the 10 terrorists, who had hired a minivan in Lambaro, Aceh Besar, were believed to have been involved in the March 4 shootout in Lamkabeu.

A police officer from the Leupung subdistrict who took part in the shooting said the right hand of one of the slain terrorists appeared to be gangrenous and was wrapped with a plastic sheet. Police, he said, believed the man had been wounded by a gunshot during the exchange of fire in Lamkabeu.

The police officer said residents tipped off a local military station that a suspicious black minivan was heading their way. The military post then sent a warning to police. The van appeared just five minutes after the roadblock had been set up, not far from the Leupung police station.

“I checked the rear part,” of the vehicle, he said, “then moved to the left side. I touched something inside a gunny sack and immediately shouted ‘firearm!,’ ” the policeman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Jakarta Globe.

Two men sitting in the front jumped out of the van and fired at police while running away. Three police officer chased the suspects, while five other officers took into custody the eight other suspects inside the van. Those captured alive were taken to Aceh Police headquarters in Banda Aceh.