COTABATO CITY, Philippines, 1 May — Police yesterday claimed to have killed four suspected extremist rebels in a pre-dawn gunbattle on the shore of General Santos City, which was recently rocked by deadly bombings.

One soldier was wounded in a separate clash with gunmen in a boat hours earlier off the coast of the southern city of Zamboanga after the military increased patrols to halt rebel movement, officials said.

Regional police chief Bartolome Baluyot said the gunmen could be Abu Sayyaf bandits and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) took exception to some reports that the suspects were its members.

"Why point the fingers at us again?" reacted MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu, who expressed concern that some people are again engaging in "cheap propaganda."

Links were made to the MILF after police found from among the possession of the dead gunmen a cap with seal of the MILF, and a stationery paper of the 205th Brigade of BIAF-MILF based at camp Khaled Ibn Al-Wahid in Maasim, Sarangani.

Police said the extortion letters written on MILF stationery were signed by Abu Muslim Al-Ghazi, an Abu Sayyaf leader.

Commander Aguilar Saligan of the MILF's 205th Brigade denied any possible involvement of his men on the incident, saying his unit is strictly adhering to the order from the higher command to stay where they are.

"So far the order we received from higher up is for us to stay put and remain in defensive position and will hit back only if fired upon," he said.

On the items found with the suspects, he said such could be easily produce by anybody.

Kabalu said the attempt to implicate the MILF on this particular issue could be part of a wider move by some groups within the military and police to sabotage the government-MILF agreement to jointly combating kidnap-for-ransom groups, 'lost commands' and other syndicated criminals operating in Mindanao.

Tight watch

According to Chief Superintendent Baluyot, the dead bandits were among eight gunmen who fired on him and his men from a boat as they approached the village of Bula in General Santos around 3:45 a.m.

"One boat approached my area," Baluyot told The Associated Press. "When they were about 25 meters (yards) away, we fired warning shots. Instead of signaling that they were not the enemy, they rained gunfire and M-203 grenades on us. So I ordered, 'fire."'

Baluyot said four gunmen jumped into the water as the boat sped away. Three suspected rebels died on the spot and the fourth died at the hospital.

Baluyot said police, who escaped injury, recovered two M-16 rifles, two M-203 grenade launchers and handguns.

Baluyot said he ordered a tight watch on the sea and shorelines of General Santos, where a trio of blasts killed 15 people just over a week ago, after receiving information that "terrorists" would enter the city.

The April 21 bombing also wounded 71 people. Police arrested five men in connection with the blasts and filed charges of multiple murder and illegal possession of explosives. They allegedly warned of further attacks to destabilize the country.

A crude homemade bomb exploded Tuesday in a vacant lot in the southern city of Cotabato, causing no injuries or damages. Police said the explosion was unconnected to the General Santos attack but have not named any suspects.

A police report from Manila headquarters said police also discovered letters on the dead indicating they were trying to extort one million pesos ($20,000) from a hotel and a drug store in General Santos.

Officials said they also recovered a list of other extortion targets.

A man who called a radio station warning of the April 21 bombings claimed responsibility on behalf of the Abu Sayyaf, which has been linked to Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, though officials could not confirm the claim.

Lt. Col. Danilo Servando, a military spokesman, said soldiers also spotted 10 gunmen in a boat near Zamboanga City, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of General Santos.

He said the unidentified men opened fire when the soldiers hailed them, wounding one, before the boat fled.

Servando said the encounter came after regional military commander ordered over the weekend a closer watch on shorelines of Zamboanga and the nearby rebel home of Basilan island.

The Abu Sayyaf are the target of a US-backed military campaign on Basilan Island where they are holding an American couple and a Filipino nurse hostage southwest of General Santos.