MANILA, July 29: Hundreds of army soldiers have been deployed to hunt down a group of gunmen who killed 10 soldiers in a single day in ambushes and clashes on a violent southern Philippine island, officials said on Sunday.

A battalion of 600 army soldiers arrived late Saturday on Basilan, where 10 soldiers were killed and 17 others wounded by dozens of gunmen who were backed by Muslim militants, military officials said. A further 600 soldiers will be sent to the island this week to help pursue the fleeing gunmen, several of whom were believed killed in Thursday's fierce fighting in mountainous Sumisip town.

In response to the massive army deployment, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is engaged in peace talks with the government, asked military commanders to notify them of their offensives to avoid accidental clashes with its Basilan-based rebel forces.

Several armed groups have a presence in predominantly Muslim Basilan, including the 11,000-strong Moro rebel front, the smaller but more violent Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf and other outlaws. Many gunmen belonging to different groups, however, have blood ties and often back each other up during clashes.

Regional army spokesman Capt. Albert Caber said the assaults would target the gunmen behind Thursday's attacks on army troops and recent deadly ambushes on workers of a vast rubber plantation in Sumisip in Basilan, about 880 kilometres south of Manila.

The flag-draped remains of the soldiers killed in Sumisip were flown to Manila Saturday and given honours by military commanders, who vowed to get justice. “There will be no peace talks with these lawless elements,” Caber said.

Officials said the gunmen involved in Thursday's fighting were led by an outlaw, a former security officer of the Sumisip rubber plantation who has turned against it in a long-running feud. Army troops raided the outlaw's hideout in the forested outskirts of Sumisip early Thursday, sparking clashes that killed eight soldiers and gunmen. Two more soldiers were killed when gunmen opened fire on army reinforcements.

The outlaw was believed to have been backed on Thursday by his armed relatives and friends, some of whom belonged to the Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, according to military officials.

Government and rebel representatives in a cease-fire body scrambled to prevent the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's main guerrilla force, which was encamped in Al-Barka town near Sumisip from getting involved as the fighting raged Thursday, said a military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to reporters.

In October, army troops seeking to arrest a fugitive rebel commander clashed with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's forces in Al Barka, sparking a major clash that killed 19 soldiers, one of the largest army losses in a single clash in years. President Benigno Aquino III rejected calls for him to end the cease-fire and decided to continue talks with the Moro rebel group.—AP