INDONESIA: Indonesian troops parachuted into Aceh and warplanes bombed rebel bases yesterday as the military launched a major offensive just hours after martial law was declared in the troubled province.
Smoke rose from hills after two Indonesian war planes swooped low over a rise, not far from the airport at the provincial capital, Banda Aceh. Hercules transport planes dropped hundreds of troops near the airport.
Around 700 fresh marines also came ashore near the industrial town of Lhokseumawe.
"Their job is to destroy the armed forces of GAM through to their roots," military chief Mr Endriartono Sutarto said, referring to the Free Aceh Movement.
Just after midnight on Sunday, President Megawati Sukarnoputri gave the go-ahead for war against the rebels after last-ditch peace talks in Tokyo collapsed, leaving a landmark peace pact welcomed by Aceh's four million people in tatters.
It is one of the Indonesian military's biggest campaigns since the 1975 invasion of East Timor.
Mr Sutarto said the military had detected key GAM leadership sites and early operations were aimed at taking those out. The aim was to reduce GAM to its "smallest unit" within six months.
Military officials said there had been at least two firefights with rebels yesterday. They also said they had caught eight rebels, a claim a GAM representative denied.
Swedish-based GAM negotiator Mr Zaini Abdullah, who was at the Tokyo negotiations, said he was appalled by the Indonesian aggression.
"It's terrible what's happening right now," he said.
In Banda Aceh, 1,700 km (1,060 miles) northwest of Jakarta, there was little sign of martial law as children went to school, shops opened and cars and motorbikes jostled for space on roads.
But in Glee Iniem village, residents felt the first sounds of war when the Indonesian war planes fired their rockets.
Ms Sukarnoputri said GAM's refusal to give up its 27-year demand for independence gave her no option but to declare martial law.
Her increasingly tough stance - not a total surprise considering her nationalist roots - has won praise among ordinary Indonesians and should be a boost going into the country's first direct presidential election next year.
It also confirms the military's inside track on national decision-making after several years of keeping a relatively low profile.
GAM has said it is ready to resume one of Asia's longest-running separatist wars, in which 10,000 people have died.