Cotabato: Around 20 people were killed in a series of clashes between Muslim separatist guerrillas and government forces in the troubled southern Philippines, officials said today.
In the latest incident, a gun battle erupted when an army patrol encountered Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters near Mamasapano town on Mindanao island today, local army commander Colonel Marlou Salazar said.
The separatist fighters fled, leaving behind a heavy machine gun, a rocket launcher, a mortar and several rifles, he said.
Judging from the abandoned weapons and bloodstains at the scene, Salazar estimated that about 10 guerrillas had been killed, although any bodies had been dragged away by their comrades.
In another incident near the same town late Sunday, three soldiers and eight rebels were killed when guerrillas attacked an army base.
"The rebels attacked the army base while they (the troops) were eating," town mayor Akmad Tato Ampatuan told reporters, adding that the two sides exchanged mortar fire overnight.
Running gun battles that followed left eight rebels dead, said local army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Julieto Ando.
