Jakarta – Renewed clashes between government troops and separatist rebels have left at least five people dead in Indonesia's Aceh province, police and rights workers said Friday.

Supt. Herarus Sumarman, the local police chief, said three people died when guerrillas attacked a police patrol on Wednesday in the west of the province, 1,750 kilometers northwest of Jakarta.

Meanwhile, villagers found the decomposing bodies of two people in separate places in the north of the region. Human rights workers claimed one of the victims had been kidnapped by the security forces earlier this week.

The latest deaths bring to at least 235 the number of people killed in the region since a truce between separatists and Indonesia's government came into effect June 2. Rebels recently pulled out of peace talks scheduled to resume in Switzerland.

Rebels belonging to the Free Aceh Movement have been fighting for independence for their oil-and gas-rich homeland for about 25 years, leaving at least 5,500 people dead in the past decade.