Banda Aceh – A policeman and five suspected separatist rebels were killed in the latest outbreak of violence to hit Indonesia's restive province of Aceh, police said Sunday.

The victims were killed in the clash between a police patrol and rebels from the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) who set an ambush in Mata Ie in East Aceh late on Friday evening, Aceh police spokesman Adjunct Senior Commissioner Agus Dwiyanto said.

"The incident took place when a Brimob [police elite unit] patrol was informed that there were several GAM members in a nearby village. They were ambushed midway and an exchange of fire of several minutes took place," Dwiyanto said.

But the GAM field commander, Amri bin Abdul Wahab, denied any of his men had been killed in the clash. Amri told AFP that rebels conducted a hit-and-run attack, but that all of his men returned safely to base. He speculated that the five victims were civilians who got killed after troops conducted a sweep in the area to hunt down the attackers.

Amri also said that a motorcycle taxi driver who had been arrested on Saturday by Brimob members in the Julok area of East Aceh was found dead with gunshot wound later in the day.

More than 10,000 people – including 1,700 this year alone – have been killed since GAM began fighting for an independent Islamic state in Aceh since

Jakarta has refused to grant independence to the oil-and gas-rich province on the northernmost tip of Sumatra island. Instead, it has accorded the staunchly Muslim reagion wide-ranging autonomy.