The Philippine army said on Monday that it killed at least 19 alleged members of an anti-government armed group in a clash in the central Philippines.
The military-run online news platform Kalinaw News reported that the suspected members of the New People’s Army were killed in an encounter with government troops on Sunday morning in the Toboso municipality of Negros Occidental province.
The clash was part of ongoing military operations in the area, with hundreds of residents reportedly displaced due to the fighting.
Authorities have yet to confirm the identities of those killed.
For decades, the Philippines has been plagued by violent insurgencies, including a separatist uprising that led to the deaths of 100,000 people.
The restive south of the Philippines is home to a decades-old separatist insurgency and extremist gangs that have declared allegiance to the Daesh terror group.
Manila signed a peace pact with the nation's largest rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, in 2014, ending their deadly armed rebellion.
But smaller bands of militants opposed to the peace deal remain. Communist rebels also operate in the region.
