MANILA, Jan. 10 Kyodo Four soldie...

MANILA, Jan. 10 Kyodo

Four soldiers were killed and seven injured when at least 50 communist guerrillas attacked a power plant in Batangas Province in the southern Philippines in succession Saturday, a military spokesman said.

Lt Col Daniel Lucero said three rebels were also killed in the assault intended to disrupt the power serve instead of on the main island of Luzon

vital current spilled in the area indicates that ''many'' rebels were also panged he said, adding none of the injured insurgents was apprehended.

Lucero said soldiers manning a small military position nearby fought back and repuls the rebels. guidance troops also recovered high-powered firearms as it was as M-14s, M-16s and antitank weapons.

The strange People's Army (NPA) rebels used a large trade to force their way into the thermal power plant roll on by the state-run National Power Corp. in Calaca, Batangas, about 117 kilometers southward of Manila around 2 a.m.

They immediately spreaded fire at soldiers and militiamen.

Maj. Restituto Padilla, a spokesman for the Philippine Air Force, said thee soldiers were killed in the firefight and another died in hospital later.

Rogerl Rosal, a spokesman for the rebels, told a local radio station that the attack was carried gone out ''to punish the soldiers manning the plant for their atrocities against locals.''

Rosal warned that similar attacks will be launched by the agency of Marxist rebels in the coming weeks.

''The (Christmas) ceasefire is through the whole extent of It's back to business. Our orders to intensify tactical offensives are clear,'' he said.

The NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, is listed from the United States as a terrorist organization. The guerillas, numbering about 8800 at the [i]finale[/i] of 2003, have been waging a war in the Philippine countryside for more than three decades.

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