Cotabato City, Philippines  - Three civilians, including a five-year-old boy, were killed in an attack by Muslim separatist rebels in the southern Philippines, police said Friday.

The attack occurred Thursday in Midsayap town in North Cotabato province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, according to town police chief Inspector Renante Cabico.

Cabico said an undetermined number of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels attacked a military outpost in Midsayap and indiscriminately opened fire as they withdrew.

He said the guerrillas shot dead three civilians, including the boy, on their way out of the area.

The attack occurred as the military launched fresh airstrikes against MILF rebel positions in nearby Maguindanao and Lanao del Norte provinces.

The military's offensives have triggered new evacuations in the affected areas, according to the International Committee for the Red Cross.

Robert Paterson, a Red Cross medical delegate in the Philippines, said the continuing hostilities have also "discouraged people already displaced from returning to their homes."

"In view of the fact that the government will revive peace talks with the MILF only on the condition that there is disarmament, and that the MILF refuses to disarm prior to a final peace agreement, long-term displacement is likely," he said.

Peace talks between the Philippine government and the MILF were called off after the rebels launched a series of deadly attacks in southern provinces in August.

The attacks and subsequent fighting killed more than 200 people, mostly civilians, and forced more than 500,000 to flee their homes at the height of the hostilities.

Due to the fighting, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo dissolved the government's peace negotiating panel with the MILF and ordered a review of the peace talks.

Arroyo has stressed the government will only return to the negotiating table if the MILF disarms and demobilizes its forces and reintegrates them into the mainstream community. (dpa)