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Manila: At least six civilians, including a pregnant woman and three children, were killed on Monday when Philippine army planes strafed and bombed Muslim rebel positions in the south, officials reported.
This comes a week after a peace deal collapsed, officials said.
Army helicopters and planes attacked rebel positions near a marshland after renegade members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) had fired at helicopters searching for rebels on the southern island of Mindanao, army officials said.
Musib Uy Tan, a local official, told reporters the civilians had been on their way to a temporary shelter area when their boat was hit by rockets fired from helicopter gunships.
"The boat was a total wreck," Tan said, adding that the bodies of a 53-year old farmer and his family, including a pregnant 17-year old girl, had been pulled from the water.
Colonel Marlou Salazar, an army brigade commander, said he was unaware of civilian casualties but reported that seven MILF rebels had been killed in the air strikes.
Earlier on Monday, a crude bomb went off in a public market in Mindanao's Isulan town while another was defused near a hospital in nearby Tacurong City. Both are Catholic-dominated areas and thus potential MILF targets.
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