Ten people including six alleged separatist rebels have been killed in violence in Indonesia's troubled province of Aceh, police and residents said Thursday.
An Aceh police spokesman, Commissioner Miyanto, said three rebels were killed during a clash with a police patrol at Indrapury east of the provincial capital of Banda Aceh on Wednesday. One man was arrested.
Three other members of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) were shot dead during an exchange of fire with troops at Idie Rayeuk in East Aceh on Wednesday, he added.
A GAM spokesman for East Aceh, Ishak Daud, said the troops shot dead two civilians at Idie Rayeuk. "They were not members of the GAM but just civilians who had run away in fear at the sight of incoming troops," Daud said.
Daud also said at least five soldiers were killed in a revenge ambush on troops in the same area later on Wednesday. Miyanto confirmed the ambush but said only one soldier was wounded.
A local leader at Gandapura in Bireun district was shot dead by gunmen in front of his home on Wednesday, local residents said.
Humanitarian volunteers found three corpses in separate locations Thursday. One body, bearing severe torture wounds, was found at the Islamic Institute's Darussalam campus north of Banda Aceh.
The volunteers also found a critically injured man at the campus with his hands tied behind his back and brought him to hospital.
A second body, with torture and gunshot wounds, was found at Kreung Cut village north of Banda Aceh.
The body of a civil servant, which bore gunshot wounds, was found at Darul Immarrasat near the provincial capital.
The GAM has been fighting since 1976 for an independent Islamic state in the resource-rich province at the northernmost tip of Sumatra.
Jakarta in April launched a military operation to rid the province of the rebels. More than 1,500 people have been killed this year, a local rights group says -- BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AFP)
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