Two men on a motorcycle early on Saturday shot into a car driven by First Sergeant Ujang in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, killing him, the Media Indonesia newspaper quoted Aceh military chief Major General Supiadin as saying.

Another soldier and two civilians were also in the car but one of the civilians, a former guerrilla, ran away from the scene and authorities were searching for him, Supiadin said.

Aceh pro-independence rebels signed a peace pact with the government in Helsinki in 2005, giving up their fight for independence in return for broadranging autonomy. Violence has since been rare in the province at the northernmost tip of Sumatra island.

The peace deal ended almost three decades of violence that had claimed more than 15,000 lives. -- AFP