Banda Aceh – At least 12 people have been killed in the latest outbreak of violence in Indonesia's Aceh province on the weekend, police and residents said Sunday.

Six suspected members of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) were shot dead in the Lambaro Angan, in the Aceh Besar district on Saturday, one Aceh police spokesman, Adjunct Senior Commissioner D. Achmad, said.

They were killed in a shootout after a team of 30 police were attacked as they came to Lambaro Angan to seek for rebels there. But local residents said that the victims were civilians, all farmers who had nothing to do with the GAM and were shot while they were working their ricefields by police sweeping the area for rebels.

A resident told local journalists that three of the victims were teenagers. Ayah Sofyan A GAM spokesman also said the five of the dead were civilians but admitted that one rebel had died from his wounds suffered during a clash with police.

Three members of the police elite Brimob unit were also wounded by an armed group of men in Bukit Tinggi, East Aceh on Friday, Ahmad said. The attackers were believed to be deserters of the police unit, he said.

An estimated 10,000 people have died since December 1976 when the GAM began to fight for an independent Islamic state in the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island. More than 300 have been killed this year alone in the energy-rich province.