MANILA, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Five Philippine soldiers and four Muslim rebels were killed in fresh clashes on the troubled southern island of Jolo on Friday as hundreds of extra troops were rushed to secure Manila after a botched coup attempt. The government put down the bloodless mutiny by a small group of renegade soldiers in a Manila hotel on Thursday and reinforcements were sent from the north of the country. In the south, where Manila is battling communist and Muslim insurgencies, Friday's hours-long gunbattle with insurgents in the jungles of Jolo overshadowed the attempted coup. "We lost five men and eight others were wounded," Colonel Cesario Atienza, a Marine brigade commander told reporters by phone, adding his troops recovered four dead rebels and a cache of weapons and munitions. "We're still pursuing them and we've asked for close air support to provide cover to our advancing ground forces." Jolo, a base for Muslim militants in the largely Roman Catholic country, was the scene of one of the bloodiest days in recent Philippine military history, when at least 20 soldiers were killed in one day in August. Atienza said a platoon of soldiers had initially clashed with a small group of Islamic militants from the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf on Friday but a larger group of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebels joined the fray. The MNLF signed a peace deal with the government in 1996 but its members, which have blood ties with the Abu Sayyaf, frequently clash with soldiers amid resentment over the deal's implementation. In Manila, about 500 fresh troops from an army camp in the north arrived in a convoy of 10 trucks at the capital's main military base to provide extra security after the botched coup. An army spokesman said an additional 100 soldiers from an elite unit trained and equipped by the U.S. Army special forces was due later in the day. "We remained on high state of alert," General Hermogenes Esperon, the military chief, told reporters as security forces continued to piece together evidence against two dozen soldiers who tried to seize control of a hotel in Makati City. "We will continue to investigate what and how it actually happened. We're looking at some political personalities who might be involved in another plot against the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo." (Reporting by Manny Mogato, editing by Carmel Crimmins)
