Three people have been killed and four others injured in mine blasts in two states of Myanmar, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday.

The three villagers died when they respectively stepped on mines allegedly planted by insurgents in Ye township in southeastern Mon state and Kyaukkyi township in northeastern Kayin state on Monday, the report said.

So far during this year, some shooting incidents by insurgents in the country were also reported by state-run media.

In June, a total of 27 people were killed and 11 others wounded in two shooting sprees by unidentified insurgent groups in Myanmar 's Kayin and Kayah states in two consecutive days. The attacks were launched on passenger buses, according to the earlier reports.

In early September, a Thai worker working with a Thai hydropower project in Kayin state was also killed in an artillery attack on the project site by an anti-government ethnic armed group. Smarn, 54, died among 13 Thais engaged in the Hatkyi hydropower survey project at Malaryu in the state's Hlaingbwe township when a shell of the heavy weapon landed on the site and exploded.

The authorities charged the Kayin National Union (KNU) armed group with being responsible for that incident.

Since the government adopted a policy of national reconciliation in 1989, 17 main anti-government armed groups have made peace with the government, returning to the legal fold under respective cease-fire agreements.

(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2007)