BY VICTOR REYES

FOUR soldiers and four militiamen died while 10 others were injured in an ambush staged yesterday by suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels in Mulondo town in Lanao del Sur, military officials said.

Military spokesmen said the perpetrators were members of the secessionist group but Brig. Gen. Hilario Atendido, chief of the 102nd Infantry Brigade and commander of Task Force Tabak, said this has yet to be verified.

The MILF said it is checking the incident in Ilian village where the four-vehicle convoy of Lt. Col. Ramon Florece, commander of the 5th Infantry Cadre Battalion, was passing when waylaid by around 100 men at around 8 a.m.

The Cafgus in the province are under Florece, who was unhurt in the two-hour ensuing firefight.

Atendido said troops are at the ambush site to determine if the MILF was behind the attack.

Atendido said the convoy just came from a detachment of the Civilian Armed Force Geographical Unit (Cafgu) in Bubong town where it gave militiamen their allowances. The convoy was proceeding to another Cafgu detachment in Lumbayanagi town also to give allowances.

Lt. Col. Agane Adriatico, spokesman of the 1st Infantry Division, said Florece’s group was also out to verify the MILF’s abduction of a militiaman in the area. He could not give details of the abduction, except that it occurred Friday and the report was received Saturday.

In Basilan, troops from the 8th Battalion Landing Team clashed with a group of MILF rebels under Ustadz Hassan Asnawi in Sumisip town at around 7:15 a.m.

An MILF rebel was killed, said Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres, AFP spokesman.

Torres said the troops were tasked to follow-up reports about a group of MILF rebels who have blocked a highway in Tumahubong village since August 11.

The troops recovered the body of the slain rebel, an M177 rifle, a shotgun, a carbine, a cal. .45 pistol, a handheld radio, a cellphone, magazines and ammunition, Torres said.

In North Cotabato, an improvised bomb exploded near the residence of Mayor Lito Piñol of M’lang town, Saturday night.

Piñol is the brother of Vice Gov. Emmanuel Piñol.

The 8:45 p.m. explosion along Daguhay street was most likely the handiwork of the MILF, said Maj. Armand Rico, spokesman of the Eastern Mindanao Command.

Rico said the bomb was similar those made by the MILF.

The Armed Forces last week launched offensives against a Maguindanao-based MILF group that forcibly occupied 15 barangays in North Cotabato. The barangays were cleared of MILF presence in three days and the military said it expected retaliatory attacks from the group.

The PNP said it would continue humanitarian missions in the North Cotabato areas where the MILF occupation displaced some 160,000 residents.

PNP chief Avelino I. Razon Jr. ordered that police physicians, dentists, and nurses stay in barangays "invaded" by the MILF, said Director Leopoldo N. Bataoil, chief of the directorate for police community relations. – With Raymond Africa