INDONESIA yesterday ordered foreign aid workers in tsunami-devastated Aceh province to have military escorts in areas facing violence by insurgents, even as the vice-president welcomed a cease-fire offer by the rebels.

Aid workers battling to ease the plight of survivors of the devastating quake and tsunami across south-east Asia were today warned they faced a dangerous new threat to efforts.

Indonesian troops shot and killed six suspected rebels in Aceh province as the military pressed ahead with its offensive despite pleas for a cease-fire during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Government troops in Indonesia have shot and killed 12 suspected rebels and arrested eight others in the escalating war in Aceh province.

A grenade buried in a sandpit killed two young sisters and badly wounded their brother in Indonesia’s war-torn Aceh province, a military spokesman said today.