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MANILA (AFP) - - The Philippine air force chief on Wednesday fiercely defended pilots who opened fire on Muslim rebels in an attack that also killed a pregnant woman and five children.
The government has launched an investigation into the deaths, and the International Committee of the Red Cross is conducting a parallel inquiry.
The rocket attacks at the Liguasan marsh on Mindanao island Monday were "justified" because the aircraft were fired at from the ground by Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels, Lieutenant-General Pedrito Cadungog told reporters.
As well as the pregnant woman and children, the military said 16 MILF rebels were also killed when aircraft attacked 10 boats of what it said were MILF fighters.
Cadungog said the pilots did not violate established rules of engagement "because it was confirmed from the ground that they were fired at."
"They were shot at, so what do you do? Rules of engagement compel that you fire back," he said, stressing that in combat, "moments of indecision can kill you also."
The independent Commission on Human Rights said it was gathering evidence to determine whether there were violations. It had earlier warned of mounting civilian deaths in the fighting.
"We have directed our regional office (in Mindanao) to investigate. Children as collateral damage is unacceptable," commission chief Leila de Lima told AFP.
MILF fighters last month pillaged Christian villages across Mindanao, leaving many civilians dead and causing hundreds of thousands to evacuate.
The flare-up occurred after the Supreme Court blocked a controversial draft peace agreement aimed at ending four decades of MILF rebellion.
The draft deal would have given the rebels control over substantial areas of the south.
President Gloria Arroyo dispatched an official mission to neighbouring Malaysia on Wednesday to brief Kuala Lumpur on the Mindanao situation, her spokesman Jesus Dureza told reporters.
Malaysia, which has a large migrant population of Filipino Muslims displaced by the decades-old southern Philippines conflict, had been hosting the failed peace talks.
It has expressed anxiety over the possibility that the fighting could spill over across the two countries' common sea border.
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