JOLO (Philippines), Jan 16: Police drawn from the ranks of former Muslim rebels shot dead three soldiers in the southern Philippines on Wednesday, taking the toll in two days of clashes to 21 and adding fuel to a rekindled revolt there.

Witnesses and officials said that after the clash in a market in the town of Jolo, Muslim civilians blaming the military for a bloody gunbattle at a protest rally there on Tuesday hacked at the corpses of the soldiers.

Shops and schools closed after the incident and residents reported the sound of gunfire from the hills above the town, which is on an island of the same name 950 kms south of Manila.

Military officials said that elsewhere on the island, four soldiers died in a clash with rebels loyal to detained Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) leader Nur Misuari.

Tuesday’s rally, during which 18 people including civilians were killed in Jolo town, was called to demand the release of Misuari, a veteran Muslim rebel who made peace with the government in 1996 and then pulled out of the deal in November.

Misuari, whose supporters took up arms again on Jolo and in the nearby city of Zamboanga after he quit the peace deal, is awaiting trial on charges of rebellion. At least 200 people, many of them rebels, died in fighting triggered by the revolt.

The military’s southern command chief Lieutenant-General Roy Cimatu told reporters the soldiers killed on Wednesday, three army rangers, were shot around 8.30 am at a public market.

Witnesses and local officials said police from mobile units made up of rebels who fought with Misuari before the 1996 peace deal, fired on an army patrol.

Police from the same units fought with Marines in Tuesday’s gunbattle, the first time MNLF men brought into the security forces under the peace deal had turned their guns on regular government troops.

Officials said police had ordered the entire 400-strong mobile unit squad pulled off Jolo, but tension was high in the town, all classes in schools and colleges were suspended and most shops were closed.

By late afternoon, the streets of Jolo were deserted and sounds of mortar fire could be heard from the hills above the town. Officials were not available for comment. Residents said troops were probably pounding MNLF positions in the interior.

At least 16 people died on the spot in Tuesday’s gunbattle. Officials said two of the 17 people wounded died overnight. The dead included 10 Marines, six civilians and two policemen.

Military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jose Mabanta told reporters four soldiers had been killed in a clash with about 50 rebels in the interior of Jolo on Wednesday. He said an unknown number of rebels had been killed.

Misuari, governor of a semi-autonomous Muslim region including Jolo under the terms of the 1996 peace deal, turned his back on the agreement after the government held elections for the governor’s post in November and backed a rival.

He fled to Malaysia after the revolt but was sent home this month to face trial.

The MNLF is now effectively split between Misuari and his successor as governor, Parouk Hussin.

Jolo and the island of the same name are home to both men. A mostly Muslim area of about 500,000 people, it has long been a centre of Muslim opposition to authorities in Manila.

The Philippines’ 76 million people are mostly Catholic, but there are four million Muslims, living mainly in the impoverished south.

Beside the MNLF, Jolo is also used as a base by Abu Sayyaf guerrillas notorious for high-profile kidnappings. Both groups have bases in the interior hills above the town.

US special forces are preparing to work with Philippine soldiers tracking the Abu Sayyaf, offering advice in an extension of President George W. Bush’s war on terrorism beyond Afghanistan.—Reuters