DAVAO CITY, 27 April 2003 - Army troops clashed yesterday with fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) who were trying to enter the bombed-out southeastern city of Davao, the military said yesterday.

Soldiers drove back separatist guerrillas after a 30-minute firefight, said Col. Rodolfo Obaniana, head of an army battalion deployed in this city of 1.2 million people.

No casualties were reported on either side.

A military patrol called in reinforcements and engaged a 200-member MILF unit that was building bunkers in the Toril district about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) from the city center, Obaniana said.

The skirmish came a day after the military deployed troops to 25 undisclosed areas in the city which were considered "high risk" and vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

The city had been on high alert since the Davao airport and seaport bombings in March and early this month, which left 38 people dead and more than 180 injured.

Extremists within the MILF are being blamed by officials for the blasts. The MILF has disowned the bomb attacks.

Meanwhile, an MILF official accused the military of "misleading" the public by always classifying government militiamen as "civilians" whenever these were slain in fighting with separatist guerrillas.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the militiamen, mostly from the CAFGU, fight side by side with army soldiers and so they are combatants and legitimate targets for the guerrillas.

Kabalu also cited the case of 14 alleged CAFGUs who were slain during an MILF raid in Maigo town of Lanao del Norte province on Thursday.

"The military immediately labeled the casualties as civilians when in truth they were CAFGUs," Kabalu said

Kabalu cited the incident at Carmen, North Cotabato, where a village captain, Dionisio Villaber, was killed with four others including his wife in an ambush on Wednesday.

Although Villaber himself was a CAFGU commander, Kabalu said, the military accused the MILF of killing civilians.

Many of the civilians caught in the MILF attacks on Maigo and Kolambugan towns in Lanao del Norte, however, said unarmed victims were killed. They described the attack as a "massacre and plain banditry."

Jerry Arcadio, a driver taken hostage by the attacking rebels, told DXOC radio in Ozamiz City near Kolambugan that the separatist label for the MILF was a misnomer.

Arcadio recounted how his boss, businessman Rally Falame, was ordered to step out of his vehicle at the highway in Kulasihan and shot. Before Falame was killed, the rebels had executed five other civilians.

Kulasihan residents who witnessed the dawn assault told similar accounts. They said civilians, many of whom never had a chance to plead for their lives, were mercilessly shot. Arcadio said that many of the attackers had demanded that the civilians give them their money and jewelry.

Cleofe Amora, who was among 13 employees and officials of Tangub City traveling in a bus on the Kolambugan-Maigo stretch of the national highway, said the rebels got in their bus and asked for their jewelry.

Renato Ramos, a Tangub bus driver, recalled that the rebel commander had ordered the passengers to "surrender" the SIM cards of their mobile phones, but the rebel fighters demanded that they give up their money and jewelry as well.

Armed Forces chief Gen. Narciso Abaya said on Friday that the latest attacks were an attempt at extortion by the rebels.

Abaya noted that the assault came just days before the start of the Palarong Pambansa sports competition in the province.

"We look at it as an attempt to disrupt the Palarong Pambansa, started by Commander Bravo who was asking for protection money. When the local government officials did not succumb to the extortion, that's what he did," Abaya said.

Bravo is the alias of Abdurahman Macapaar, a ranking MILF leader in Lanao del Norte.

The military also claimed that the attacks were also meant to embarrass the government at a time it is trying to restart stalled peace talks with the Muslim separatists. (With inputs from agencies)