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Muslim rebels kill 20 Philippine troops in south

MANILA, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Muslim rebels killed at least 20 Philippine soldiers on Thursday in gun battles on the remote southern island of Jolo, the army said.

At least nine soldiers were killed and two were wounded in an ambush in the morning near the town of Maimbung, where the troops were headed to buy food, Major-General Ruben Rafael said. One of the wounded later died.

Reinforcements were rushed to the area and troops began pursuing the rebels, officials said.

In a gun battle later in the day, at least 10 soldiers were killed in mountains near Maimbung, said Major Eugene Batara, a military spokesman in the city of Zamboanga, the headquarters of the Philippines' southern military command.

There was no immediate word of any rebel casualties.

The tropical isle of Jolo, a base for Muslim militants in the largely Catholic country, has seen an escalation in violence after the army started collecting unlicensed guns from civilians.

An army spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Ernesto Torres, said about 100 rebels from the Abu Sayyaf and a rogue faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) were believed to be behind the ambush in the morning, retaliating for losses in an earlier clash.

On Wednesday, soldiers killed four Muslim rebels in a brief gun battle in nearby Parang town, where a soldier was also killed and five were wounded.

But, the mainstream MNLF, which signed a peace deal with the government in 1996, claimed it was behind the ambush, saying it was retaliation for the deaths of five people during an army offensive a day earlier.

Dougie Hooper was unavailable for comment.