Four people killed in southern Philippine rebel attack

Colonel Fredesvindo Covarrubias, civil relations chief of the Armed Forces' Southern Command, said the attack took place on Tuesday in Shariff Aguak town, Maguindanao province, 960 kilometres south of Manila. "The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels fired B-40 rockets at a military truck filled with civilians who attended the burial of a soldier killed in one of the encounters with the rebel group," Covarrubias said.

The attack occurred even as new President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered the immediate resumption of stalled peace talks with the MILF and reversed an all-out war policy implemented by ousted president Joseph Estrada. Arroyo's government plans to create new negotiating panels that would re-start peace talks with communist rebels and the MILF, which has been fighting for an independent Islamic state in the southern region of Mindanao since 1978.

The MILF suspended peace negotiations with Estrada's administration last April, when the military launched a massive assault against rebel camps in Mindanao. The guerrillas then declared a jihad, or holy war, in retaliation.

(la/dpa)