Philippine rebels attack second town

Muslim rebels have attacked a second town in the Philippines while they continue to hold scores of hostages in a standoff with government forces in a nearby city.

The vice-mayor of Lamitan town in Basilan province, Roderick Furigay, told the Associated Press that rebels attacked early on Thursday. He said five people were missing and two had been wounded in fighting.

Basilan island province is a boat ride away from Zamboanga city, where Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) fighters have been holding scores of residents as hostages since Monday, when government troops repulsed their attempt to erect a rebel flag at city hall.

Battles continued to rage in the port city of Zamboanga, with scores of people being kept hostage and residents trapped by the fighting.

The rebels, angered by a broken peace deal with the government, are using a dozen of the civilian hostages as human shields near Zamboanga. Troops surrounded the fighters and their hostages in four coastal villages on Wednesday.

Al Jazeera's Jamela Alindogan, reporting from the city, said mortar barrages and gunfire were still being traded and it was not clear whether negotiations had begun between rebels and the state to end the stand-off.

She said that families were trapped in the city and food was running short.

Last month, the MNLF issued new threats to secede by establishing its own republic.

However, its leader, Nur Misuari, has not appeared in public or issued any statement since about 200 of his alleged followers barged into Zamboanga's coast early on Monday and clashed with soldiers and police.

The fighting left at least nine people dead and several wounded.

The rebels took scores of residents hostage, holding them in houses and a mosque that have been ringed by troops.

President Benigno Aquino III said the top priority was the safety of the hostages and residents of the city.

Mar Roxas, Philippine interior secretary, said officials had opened talks with the rebels "at different levels", including a commander loyal to Misuari, but added there had been no breakthrough.

The MNLF signed a 1996 peace accord with the government, but many of its fighters held on to their weapons and accused officials of reneging on a promise to develop an autonomous region for minority Muslims in the south of the predominantly Catholic Philippines.

The group has said it was being left out in government's negotiations with another fighter group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which broke away from the MNLF in the early 1980s.

Al Jazeera and wire services