The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Iligan

Muslim separatist rebels left a trail of bloodied corpses and burning homes after a series of pre-dawn attacks Monday on towns in the restive southern Philippines.

President Gloria Arroyo branded the attacks by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas as "sneaky and treacherous" and in clear violation of peace negotiations, and ordered the army to "defend every inch" of soil.

AFP reporters saw nine lying bloodied by a roadside in one village as black smoke billowed from houses burning in the background.

Five other civilians were killed in another village by the marauding MILF fighters, fleeing residents said.

Some of the dead had been hacked by machetes.

In near simultaneous assaults, hundreds of MILF rebels raided the towns of Kauswagan, Maigo and Kolambugan in Lanao del Norte province and Maasim in the province of Sarangani, all on the island of Mindanao, officials said.

More than 200 guerrillas fought intense gun battles with troops and police in the centre of the mainly Christian town of Kolambugan, said mayor Beltran Lumaque.

"They have taken over the business centre, the rural banks, pawnshops," he told a Manila radio station, saying houses were on fire and many residents had fled heavy fighting in the town centre.