Rebels kill Filipino bus passengers

Eighteen deaths were reported yesterday in clashes between troops and separatists on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

Members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front set up a roadblock on the road linking the cities of Cotabato and General Santos and stopped a bus. A passenger said the women aboard and those who could speak the local Muslim dialect were spared by the rebels, but nine men were lined up on the roadside.

"Then they opened fire," said Rommel Gamiao, a student aged 24, who was shot in the chest and legs. "I just lay still. Then the soldiers came and they all ran away." He said the eight others were all killed, although police only recovered sixbodies at the scene.

A local military spokesman, Major Julieto Ando, said nine rebels were killed in the pursuit. "They are like mad dogs," he said. "This is not the work of revolutionaries. This is the work of bandits."

A spokesman for the front, Eid Kabalu, told a local radio station that the passengers killed were marines and not civilians. "Our instruction to our field commanders is clear - target only military and not civilians," he said, adding that four soldiers were killed in the pursuit along with front fighters.

The front has been fighting for a separate homeland for the Moro people for more than 30 years. It agreed a ceasefire with Manila several years ago but has all but broken off dialogue since the army attacked a base in Mindanao last month, claiming the group was harbouring members of the Pentagon bandit gang.

Violence in the region has escalated significantly. Earlier this month 24 people were killed in a bombing at the Davao City airport.

Major Ando also said that early yesterday rebels on boats strafed a village about 25 miles from the ambush site, killing one man.

The Philippine president, Gloria Arroyo, has also suffered a blow in her attempt to eliminate another Islamist group, the Abu Sayyaf.

Last week she said it was "pretty final" that US special forces would not train troops on the Abu Sayyaf's stronghold of Jolo island after Washington said its forces would also fight the rebels, which violates the Philippine constitution.