ZAMBOANGA, Philippines -- Suspected Muslim bandits with assault rifles and machetes swooped down on a Christian settlement in the southern Philippines, killing at least 40 people, mostly women and children, police said Monday.
A police spokesman, Col. Indo Ho, said about 20 men, led by a former officer of the separatist Moro National Liberation Front, or MNLF, went from house to house, attacking residents of Sinaguran village, Tungawan town, 510 miles south of Manila.
About a dozen others were seriously injured, police said.
'The bandits went on a killing spree, lining up civilians, shooting and hacking them to death,' Ho told reporters at the police regional headquarters in nearby Zamboanga City.
Police could not determine a motive for the massacre, but were checking the possibility that the bandits' suspected leader, Kumander Zafari, was avenging the death of his son, who was killed in the area two years ago.
Government troops backed by helicopters and armored personnel carriers were deployed Monday in an attempt to track down the bandits, who are believed responsible for a series of kidnappings and robberies in the area, police said.
The MNLF is one of three separatist factions fighting for Muslim independence in the main southern island of Mindanao.
