Banda Aceh – A family of three shot dead by unidentified gunmen were the latest victims of violence in Indonesia's Aceh province where at least eight others were killed in past days, reports said Thursday.

Islamic school leader, Tengku Abdullah Mahmud, his wife and their 10-month-old son were killed by the armed men who raided the school in Timang Gajah, Central Aceh, early Tuesday, the Waspada daily reported. Police said they were not aware of the killings.

An unidentified witness told the daily that a group of armed men in two pick-up trucks arrived at Mahmud's school at midnight and minutes later he heard shots fired. The attackers hauled the bodies of Mahmud and his wife into one of the trucks, leaving the baby, who later died of his wounds, as well as several unharmed students, the witness said.

In another incident, soldiers killed two rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) on Wednesday in a gunfight in the Hagu Kunyet village in Pidie district, said local military commander Lieutenant Colonel Supartodi.

Separately, Aceh military spokesman Major Zainal Muttaqin said soldiers shot dead four guerillas in separate clashes in West Aceh on Tuesday.

Two men were found also dead with gunshot wounds on Tuesday and Wednesday in separate locations in Bireun district, local aid workers said.

GAM rebels countered that troops had killed seven civilians on Tuesday and Wednesday but the reports could not be immediately confirmed by the military.

A GAM spokesman, Abu Juana, accused troops of killing three civilians, including a teenage boy in the Cot Kuta area of West Aceh on Wednesday after six officers were killed by rebels.

Another rebel spokesman, Abrar Muda, said security forces shot dead four civilians during a search for separatists in the Seunobok Keuranji village in South Aceh on Tuesday.

Aceh, a resource-rich region on the northern tip of Sumatra island, has seen daily violence between rebels and security forces.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in Aceh since GAM began to fight for an independent Muslim state in 1976. Some 1,700 were killed this year alone, rights groups said.

Separatism has been fuelled by years of human rights abuses by the military and the central government's draining of the region's oil and gas wealth.