Home of US teachers hit by gunshots in Indonesia’s Aceh province, motive remains unclear

Gunfire at home of US teachers in Indonesia’s Aceh

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Gunfire hit the home of two American lecturers in Indonesia’s western province of Aceh on Monday, but no one was injured.

It is the third time this month foreigners have been targeted in Aceh, a poor province on Indonesia’s westernmost tip, where a massive reconstruction effort has been under way since the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Gunmen shot at the house of two English teachers before dawn Monday, said Col. Bambang Soetjahjo, a local police official. He said the motive was still unclear, and no arrests were made.

One of the teachers, Michelle Ahmed, told police she and her colleague had just woken up when they heard six shots outside their house. Both women are teaching English at a local university.

Neighbors told reporters they heard shots and a speeding motorcycle but did not see anyone.

A German Red Cross worker was seriously wounded when men on a motorcycle shot at him on Nov. 5. Eleven days later, bullets hit a guesthouse where an EU official was staying, but no one was injured. Police have formed a team to investigate the shootings, Soetjahjo said.

Mysterious shootings before elections in April killed about a dozen people in Aceh, where an insurgency raged until 2005.