Government security forces killed two separatist rebels in a clash in the restive southern Philippines, a military official said on Thursday.

Jonathan Ponce, spokesman for the Philippine Army's 6th Infantry Division, told reporters that around 25 rebels belonging to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) stormed Wednesday night a detachment in the township of Mamasapano, Maguindanao province.

Ponce said a firefight ensued and lasted for 30 minutes, leaving two dead on the enemy side.

"We suffer no casualties. The enemy withdrew after we fired mortars to drive them away," Ponce said.

Emmanuel Pinol, vice-governor of the neighboring North Cotabato province, said aside from raiding the military position, the rebel group is also staging bombings in the southern region of Mindanao as their way of pressuring Manila to resume peace talks with them.

On June 29, three people were killed when a homemade bomb went off outside a coffee shop along a highway in the township of Datu Saudi Ampatuan in Maguindanao.

The military blamed the attack on the MILF, an accusation denied by the rebel group.

The 11,800-member MILF, the largest rebel group in the Philippines, has been fighting for 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