Banda Aceh – Violence pitting Indonesian government forces against separatist rebles in the restive province of Aceh has claimed another four lives, police and the military said Monday.

The body of a 49-year-old man whose policeman son was killed Saturday was found by residents in Lampuuk resort area in Aceh Besar district early Monday morning bearing heavy torture marks, said police spokesman Sudarsono.

Amiruddin was believed to have been abducted from his house by suspected Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist rebels on Sunday night, Sudarsono told AFP.

A police sergeant major was shot dead by two people on a passing motorcycle in Keude Geudong, just east of the North Aceh district town of Lhokseumawe on Sunday afternoon, the district police chief, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Wanto Sumardi said. Sumardi said that the attackers also fled with the victim's handgun.

The local spokesman of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Teungku Jamaica confirmed that his men had attacked the victim.

An army foot soldier was shot dead and three others were injured during an ambush by armed separatist rebels in the subdistrict of Idi Rayeuk in East Aceh on Sunday, Aceh military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Firdaus said. About 40 rebels ambushed some 20 soldiers which were returning to their barracks.

News of the ambush prompted the military authorities to alert other troops in the area, which then conducted a sweep to hunt down the attackers. A rebel was shot dead in a clash that broke up after the group of assailants met with troops pursuing them in Seunobok, a village near Panton Rayeuk, Firdaus told AFP.

Meanwhile a press release issued by the head of the Aceh military operation information office, Major Edi Sulistiadie, said that troops on Sunday raided a suspected base of the GAM in Kuta Baro subdistrict some nine kilometres east of the Aceh capital of Banda Aceh but found the base empty.

But troops found 12 home-made bombs, a home-made grenade launcher and a number of ammunition. The local GAM spokesman, Ayah Sofyan, denied that the rebels had left the bombs behind.

GAM has been fighting for an independent Islamic state in the oil- and gas-rich province since the mid-1970s. In April, after the failure of efforts to negotiate a settlement based on giving the province greater autonomy, Jakarta deployed troop reinforcements and launched an operation to rid the province of the rebels. More than 1,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the province since the start of the year.