(BSS/AFP) - Separatists in Indonesia`s restive eastern Papua region have shot and killed eight gold miners they claimed were undercover members of the security forces, the military said Thursday.

The miners were attacked while working in the far-flung district of Yahukimo, Papua Pegunungan province on Wednesday, military spokesman Wirya Arthadiguna said in a statement.

The victims, he said, were "civilians panning for gold in the area".

The West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), however, said it had carried out a successful "cleansing operation" against "soldiers/police officers disguised as illegal gold miners".

TPNPB spokesman Sebby Sambom said the operation was in retaliation for the deaths of two of its members at the hands of the military in Yahukimo last week.

Wirya said the military has deployed teams to track down the shooters and evacuate the victims` bodies by helicopter.

Security in the area will be stepped up, he added.

Papua, which shares an island with Papua New Guinea, is a former Dutch colony that declared independence in 1961.

Indonesia took control two years later, followed by a 1969 referendum in which 1,000 Papuans out of a population of some 800,000 voted in favour of integration.

Papuan independence activists regularly criticise the vote and call for fresh polls, but Jakarta says its sovereignty over Papua is supported by the United Nations.

Last year, separatists killed at least 11 gold miners in Yahukimo, according to the military, in another case in which the targets were accused of being undercover soldiers.

In 2022, 10 civilians were shot dead in a rebel ambush, and eight telecoms workers were killed in another attack in what the guerrillas said was a war zone.

Indonesia`s National Commission on Human Rights is investigating the killing of more than a dozen civilians, including women and children, in a military operation in the Papuan village of Kembru in April.

The military claimed it had taken out rebel fighters.