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16 killed in Irian airport shootings

JAKARTA: Sixteen people, including soldiers, were killed on Monday in a bizarre airport shooting in Indonesia's Irian Jaya, one month after tribal rioting shook the remote area, businessmen and residents said.

The sources said the dawn shooting occurred in or around an army-run hangar at Timika airport, 4,000 km (2,500 miles) east of Jakarta and the gateway to one of the world's biggest copper and gold mines.

They said the shooting was apparently started by a disgruntled Indonesian soldier escorting the bodies of two other soldiers killed at the weekend by tribespeople in the remote village of Mapunduma, 160 km (100 miles) northeast of Timika.-Reuter