At least three Maoist rebels were killed in a firefight with police and security forces in India's eastern state of Orissa on Friday, a news report said.
The clash took place in a forested region in Sundergarh district, the IANS news agency reported.
One of the killed rebels was a self-styled area commander of the Communist Party of India-Maoist, Sanjeev Marik, a senior police official, told the IANS, DPA reported.
The security forces suffered no casualties, the report said.
In a separate incident, the rebels shot dead a villager in Kandhamal district, the report added.
More than one-third of India's 626 administrative districts are affected by the insurgency, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described as the main internal security threat.
The rebels claim they are fighting for the rights of tribal, landless and poor people in some of the country's poorest regions.
At least 1,174 rebels, troops and civilians were killed in incidents related to the insurgency in 2010, making it one of the deadliest years in the four-decade old rebellion in India.
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