Violence has left at least ten people dead as explosions and volleys of gunfire marked the start of a two-day strike called by rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province.

The separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels have called the strike to protest alleged brutality by police and troops and Jakarta's plan to revive a separate military command for the province. In provincial capital Banda Aceh, and the districts of North Aceh, Pidie and South Aceh, shops were closed, schools were empty and no public transport was running on Wednesday.

A journalist in Lhokseumawe, the capital of North Aceh where Exxon-Mobil's key gas and oil operations are based, reported hearing 15 explosions since nightfall Tuesday, and volleys of gunfire before dawn.

In Banda Aceh a massive explosion was heard early morning near the closed Syah Kuala university campus, but there was no further information available.

Soldiers were out patrolling the streets in Banda Aceh and police were driving around in cars urging residents through loudspeakers to get down to business as usual.

Several policemen were also seen driving public buses carrying government officials, a local journalist said.

The violence which has wracked the province for decades continued unabated Wednesday.

A gunfight broke out between soldiers and suspected GAM rebels after gunmen ambushed a military patrol in Pidie district, a military spokesman said. Two gunmen were killed and two soldiers injured.

Elsewhere in Pidie two unidentified bodies with gunshot wounds were delivered to the Sigli hospital. They had been brought in by volunteer workers from the Salawak mountain area, a paramedic said.

Earlier Wednesday in the Tanggoi area of North Aceh, two male corpses bearing gunshot wounds and torture marks were collected by volunteer workers, a humanitarian activist said.

Another unidentified male body was also found in the Batu Phat area near Lhokseumawe, the main town in North Aceh, the activist told AFP.

In East Aceh, humanitarian workers discovered two unidentified bodies with massive head wounds and torture marks in Perlak area.

A 49-year-old woman was shot dead by suspected GAM rebels after she saw them placing a bomb by a bridge near her house in Bireuen district late Tuesday, said Aceh military spokesman Major Zaenal Muttaqin.

Soldiers are under orders to shoot-on-sight any rebels who attempt to block roads and disrupt public transport during the strike.

In the Tualang Cut area of East Aceh dozens of coconut trees were felled on the streets by GAM rebels on Tuesday night, a local journalist said. It coincides with a one-day visit by Vice President Hamzah Haz to the resource-rich province on the northwest tip of Sumatra island, where he is due to visit the southwest island of Simeuleu and the southern district of Singkil.

GAM has been struggling to establish a separate Islamic state since 1976. Jakarta last year granted Aceh greater self-rule and a larger share of oil and gas revenues. It also allowed the staunchly Muslim region to implement Islamic law.

But President Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of the country's founding president Sukarno, has vowed it will never win independence.

More than 1,700 people died last year in skirmishes between rebels and security troops, and 86 have already been killed this year.