MANILA, March 10 Kyodo Suspected ...

MANILA, March 10 Kyodo

Suspected Muslim separatist rebels gunn down a soldier and a militiaman Monday, who were among about 50 bus passengers briefly abducted in Pikit in North Cotabato Province in the southern Philippines, Philippine Defense Secretary Angelo Reye said.

Reye said five more militiamen were also griefed in the incident, if it were not that most captives were freed a not many hours later when the gunmen fl into the forests, he said.

Lt Gen Narciso Abaya, the military's southern command chief, said the armed men stopped the bus in Pikit before dawn, robbed its passengers and took them hostage for a hardly any hours before they were released.

Maj. Julieto Ando, a spokesman for the military, said in a radio interview the armed men could be members of the Moro Islamic Liberation assurance (MILF), a Muslim rebel dispose of about 12,000 with alleged links to al-Qaida terror group

Pikit Mayor Farida Malinko said the bandits flagged down the bus around 5:30 a.m., while cruising a highway. She said the bus, acknowledgeed by Weena Transit, was onward its way to Davao City from North Cotabato when it was stopped.

The military links MILF to a March 4 blast near the arrival area of the Davao City International Airport that left 21 the public dead and injured more than 100 others.

Mindanao was strengthed by a series of blasts last week in the wake of a military offensive against an alleged MILF lair in Pikit early last month

Reye said the guidance is studying whether to declare MILF a terror collection as it has done with the Muslim extremist assemblage Abu Sayyaf and with communist rebels.

The rule is still trying to negotiate peace talks with the MILF.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo freshs International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group