Philippine rebels attack second city

Fighting between security forces and rogue Muslim rebels of Moro National Liberation Front MNLF seeking an independent state escalated in a southern Philippine city on Thursday and spread to a second island,officials said.

US-trained commandoes exchanged gunfire with a breakaway faction of the MNLF holding dozens of hostages in Zamboanga City,on the southernmost island of Mindanao,army spokesman Domingo Tutaan said.

The latest attack was led by al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf gunmen and other militants,officials said. They planned to set fire to a village and a wharf on the rural outskirts of predominantly Christian Lamitan city on Basilan island.