Ahmad Pathoni, Banda Aceh – Four people were killed in two separate armed attacks on New Year's Eve in Indonesia's Aceh province, police and a resident said on Sunday.

Attackers armed with AK-47 rifles opened fire at workers installing fibre optic cable for the state telecommunications company Telkom in Bireuen district late on Saturday, killing three people, local police chief Yuri Karsono said. Seven other workers were wounded, he said.

In a separate attack on Saturday, two unidentified persons on a motorcycle shot dead a shopkeeper in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, said Ibnu Hajar, a witness.

Aceh was the scene of a bloody separatist conflict for decades before the government signed a peace pact with the rebels in 2005. The semi-autonomous province has been generally peaceful since the signing the pact and a former rebel leader was elected governor in 2006, but sporadic violence has occurred in recent years.