At least 15 separatist rebels have been killed in the latest bloodshed in Indonesia’s province of Aceh, where thousands have died in decades of simmering violence, the official news agency Antara reported yesterday in Jakarta.

Antara, quoting army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Asep Sapari, said violence erupted between members of the Free Aceh Movement and security forces on Tuesday in five areas of Aceh, which lies on western tip of Sumatra island.

“All of the bodies of the separatist rebels who were killed in battles with the Indonesian soldiers have been returned to their families for the funeral”, Sapari was quoted as saying from Aceh’s Lho-kseumawe town.

Free Aceh Movement spokesmen were not available for immediate comment.There were no reported casualties from the military’s side.

About 10,000 people, mostly civilians, died in fighting between Free Aceh Movement and government troops in staunchly Muslim Aceh in the years before the military launched an offensive in May 2003.

Since then the military says it has killed around 2,000 Free Aceh Movement fighters and captured 3,000 more, but the figures are hard to verify because access to the province by media and independent groups is restricted.

Indonesia began the offensive and imposed martial law in Aceh, an oil and gas-rich province whose capital is some 1,700 km northwest of Jakarta, after peace talks collapsed.

Martial law was lifted in May, but 40,000 troops remain under a civil emergency that enables extraordinary security measures.