At least 49 Philippine police commandos have been killed in a clash with Muslim rebels in the south, a bloodbath which tested a peace accord signed last March.
An 11-hour gun battle broke out after police entered the remote town of Mamasapano, held by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) without coordinating with the rebels as required under their ceasefire agreement.
The bodies of 49 police have been recovered from the town on Mindanao island and moved to an army camp, regional police spokeswoman Judith Ambong said.
She did not say whether any MILF members were killed.
Police had been targeting two high-profile terror suspects in the operation.
“This is going to be a big problem,” the MILF’s chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said when asked how the fighting would affect the peace process.
But he and government officials said the ceasefire still held.
Philippine national police chief Leonardo Espina and interior and local government secretary Manuel Roxas flew to Maguindanao on Monday to check on the situation.
Flags across the Philippines have been placed at half-mast in police camps and offices to mourn the deaths of the police commandos.
The clash was the “first encounter” between the Philippine government and the MILF since a peace agreement was signed in March.
Mr Iqbal said he hoped peace timetables would not be impacted by the renewed fighting.
“We are committed (to the peace process). For the MILF, the ceasefire still holds,” he said.
The 10,000-member MILF had agreed to end decades of rebellion in exchange for a proposed law now being debated in parliament that would give the minority Muslims self-rule in several southern provinces.
The Philippines Congress, which had been trying to draft the bill, suspended its hearings in the wake of the gun battle.
Rebels were scheduled to start the disarming process at the start of this year.
Since the peace deal was struck, government forces have been going after the BIFF, a group of several hundred Muslim gunmen who last year pledged allegiance to Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria.
