CotabatoCity:"Suspected Muslim rebels stormed aprovincial jail in southern PhilippinesFriday, freeing at least 49 prisoners, including three suspected bombers,"police said. 

One jail guard and a civilian companion were wounded in thepre-dawn attack by over two dozen heavily armed men at the provincial jail in KidapawanCityin North Cotabato province, 960 km south of Manila.

Superintendent Federico Dulay, provincial police director,said the gunmen were believed to be allied with Al Qaeda-linked Muslimmilitants, such as Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) operatives.

"We are certain that they are allies of terror groupslike the JI because they freed three bombers," he said.

Dulay added that rogue members of the separatist MoroIslamic Liberation Front (MILF) were also suspected to have been involved inthe jailbreak.

He identified the three suspected bombers as Datu AliSultan, Mundos and Bido, all involved in an October 2002 bomb attack in a busterminal in KidapawanCity that killed sevenpeople.

The gunmen, armed with assorted high-powered weapons,disarmed the jail guards and fired a rifle-propelled grenade into a cell toallow the prisoners to escape.

"The attack caught authorities totally off-guard,"Dulay said, adding that the jail guards were outnumbered.

He said a joint police and army team has been dispatched tohunt down the escaped prisoners and the assailants who allegedly fled towardsthe nearby province of Maguindanao.

"We have information that the group has brokenup," he said.

MILF spokesperson Eid Cabalu denied the rebel group wasinvolved in the jailbreak, and offered to help in the manhunt.

"We are willing to cooperate," he said.

 "If there aremembers of our group that are indeed involved, let them suffer the consequencesof their doings," he said.

The MILF is the largest Muslim rebel group fighting for aseparate Islamic state in the southern Philippines. It is holding peacetalks with the government, and the two sides have signed a ceasefire.