Seven Filipino policemen were killed on Sunday in an ambush by militants in the restive southern Philippines, a spokesman said.

Superintendent Danilo Bacas, spokesman for the police in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, told Xinhua that the cops were heading back to their headquarters on a vehicle when they were attacked by a group of guerillas around 3:00 p.m. local time (0700 GMT) in the township of Sumisip, Basilan province.

Anti-government militants are active in the island province, about 880 kilometers south of Manila.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but Bacas blamed rouge members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's largest rebel group, as behind the incident.

"Seven of our men died and two others were injured in the ambush of the rebels. There's a pursuit operation ongoing in the area," Bacas said.

Bacas said among the fatalities was a police chief whom he identified as "Inspector Janatul." The injured have been rushed to a nearby hospital.

A local radio station, however, reported that nine policemen, who were with town mayor Haber Asarul, were killed in the attack. Asarul himself was unhurt, according to the report.

On Saturday night, suspected rogue MILF rebels attacked and killed two military engineers involved in the construction of a school building in the nearby township of Tipo-tipo. The two unarmed soldiers were waylaid by a group armed men outside their camp perimeter, the military said.

Rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu said that they will verify the involvement of their forces in the separate attacks.

"Our forces on the ground have autonomy. They can do whatever they want but it's not sanctioned by the entire organization," Kabalu said.

The MILF has camps in Basilan and some of its fighters are being accused by the military of colluding with the extremist Abu Sayyaf group in kidnap-for-ransom activities in the province. The 400-strong Abu Sayyaf is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations, allegedly responsible for a string of attacks on both soldiers and civilians.

The 11,800-member MILF has been fighting decades to establish an independent Islamic state in the southern region of Mindanao. Peace talks between the group and the government met a deadlock after the two sides failed to sign a territory deal as scheduled last August, prompting some radical members of the group to stage attacks on Christian communities in the region.

The military launched an offensive against the so-called "lawless" MILF members following the attacks, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of residents in Mindanao over the past months.

Source: Xinhua