Eight Communist Rebels, Four Soldiers Dead in Philippine Clashes

Eight communist guerrillas and four soldiers have been killed in separate clashes in the southern Philippines, a hotbed of one of the world's last Maoist rebellions, the military said Tuesday.

One female and six male members of the New People's Army (NPA) were killed in skirmishes Monday near Alabel on the south coast of Mindanao island, a military statement said.

The 4,000-member NPA is waging one of the world's longest-running insurgencies, with about half its guerrillas based in the south, according to military estimates.

Government forces meanwhile repulsed an attack by a separate NPA unit on a police post in the southern town of Mati, 140 kilometers (87 miles) northeast of Alabel, on Sunday, a separate military statement said.

The 50 guerrillas, who wore fake army uniforms, failed to capture the police post and suffered one dead after it was reinforced by a local army unit, it said.

However, a landmine set off by the retreating rebels killed three of the pursuing soldiers and wounded four others, it added.

It said the rebels also killed an off-duty soldier who was passing through a roadblock that they had set up near the police station.

Repeated efforts by successive governments to arrange peace talks have failed to end the rebellion, which has claimed about 30,000 lives by official estimates.

The latest negotiations with President Benigno Aquino's government faltered after rebel demands that detained comrades be released were rejected.

Aquino has however succeeded in forging a deal to end a far larger Muslim insurgency, also in Mindanao.

Last year's agreement calls for the expansion of Muslim self-rule in the mainly Catholic nation's south and the disarming of thousands of guerrillas.