Seven other soldiers were wounded in the attack Saturday by about 60 guerrillas of the New People's Army near Mansalay townin Mindoro Oriental province, about 240 kilometers south of Manila.

Several rebels may have been injured during the three-hour gunbattle, military officials said.

It was the army's biggest loss in a single clash so far this year. Last month, rebels killed five soldiers and wounded eight others in a battle in the northern Philippines.

“We'll be conducting an investigation if there was possible tactical blunder in the operation,” army Lt. Gen.

Roland Detabali said. “It might have not been well-supervised.” Detabali wondered why the soldiers, who had been searching for a group of rebels, ventured out at daybreak when they could be easily seen, instead of launching an offensive at night.

Air force helicopters brought the remains of the dead to Manila on Sunday.

About 1,000 soldiers, including reinforcements from nearby Quezon province, have been deployed to hunt down the guerrillas, Detabali said.

In separate fighting Sunday, an army lieutenant and five communist rebels were killed in a clash in a village near central Cadiz city that broke out when an army patrol stumbled on a group of rebels, army spokesman Lt. Col. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos said.

Arroyo has ordered the military to end the communist rebellion, one of Asia's longest, by the end of her term in June. The rebels have dismissed the deadline.

The rebels say they are fighting to set up a Marxist state in the country. Their ranks have thinned to about 4,000, down from a peak of more than 25,000 in the mid-1980s, because of battle setbacks, surrenders and factionalism.

Peace talks between the rebels and the government brokered by Norway collapsed in 2004 after the rebels accused the Philippine government of instigating their inclusion on US and European terrorist blacklists.
 

Down south in the province of Sulu, Marines killed at least seven Al-Qaeda-linked militants Sunday in a raid on a coastal hide-out but failed to capture a Malaysian terror suspect long wanted by Washington, officials said.

Government forces, backed by intelligence from captured militants and US military surveillance, have staged a series of offensives against the Abu Sayyaf extremist group in recent weeks - including one that killed a top commander last month.

Marines in rubber boats launched the latest raid Sunday on Laminusa Island off southern Sulu province, sparking two clashes that left seven militants - including two women - dead and wounded a marine, regional military commander Brig. Gen. Rustico Guerrero said.

Malaysian militant Zulkifli bin Hir, also known as Marwan, and Abu Sayyaf commander Abu Benhur are believed to have escaped with other fleeing militants, Guerrero said.

“They may have escaped but we're pursuing them. This campaign will be relentless,” he told The Associated Press by telephone.

Marines recovered 15 assault weapons abandoned by the militants in a rural tangle of huts on stilts, he said.

The United States has offered a $5 million reward for the capture of Marwan, a US-trained Malaysian engineer who has been accused by Philippine authorities of involvement in a number of deadly bombings in the country.

Marwan has alleged links to several Southeast Asian terrorist groups with Al-Qaeda ties. The US State Department says he is believed to be a leader of the militant organization Kumpulun Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM) and a member of the central command of Jemaah Islamiyah, the Al-Qaeda affiliate blamed for numerous regional attacks, including the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings in Indonesia.

He is thought to have been living in the southern Philippines since 2003 and is accused of conducting explosives training for Abu Sayyaf militants there.

The Abu Sayyaf had at least 391 fighters as of December, down from 400 a year earlier due to battle casualties, according to a new military report. The militants have about 340 firearms on Jolo, the nearby island of Basilan and the Zamboanga Peninsula, it said.

The brutal group has been fighting for years to create an Islamic state in the predominantly Christian nation. The US has blacklisted it as a terrorist organization because of deadly bombings, kidnappings and attacks targeting civilians, including Americans.

Last month, government forces killed Abu Sayyaf commander Albader Parad, a young, Sulu-based militant who has been accused of beheadings and high-profile kidnappings, including of three Red Cross workers from Switzerland, Italy and the Philippines. The three were freed last year, reportedly after payment of a large ransom.