COTABATO CITY, Philippines—Moro rebels attacked a military detachment in North Cotabato early Wednesday morning triggering a three-hour gunfight that left three rebels killed and hundreds of civilians fleeing, the military here said.

The attack came while government forces were attending a training program on peace.

Colonel Julieto Ando, 6th Infantry Division spokesperson, said at least 30 Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas, under Commander Paradise, fired eight rounds of 60 mm mortars at the Bravo company base of the 68th Infantry Battalion in the border of the villages of Kabpangi and Capayuran, both in Pigcawayan, North Cotabato early Wednesday.

The villages are in the border of North Cotabato and Maguindanao.

Ando said there were no reports of casualties on the government side.

At least 30 families have fled to nearby villages.

The howitzers’ explosion in the rebels’ position forced the guerrillas to flee toward the Liguasan marshland, Ando said.

Ando said the rebels’ position in Kabpangi had long been monitored but the military did not attack them since they do not belong to the group of Ombra Kato.

“We have been observing them there, our mandate is to run after Kato and his close aides,” Ando said.

For almost four months, the military had been pursuing Kato and his men who attacked 15 villages in five North Cotabato towns in August after the government aborted the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain.

Ando said there was no directive to cease operations and the manhunt against Kato is ongoing.

It had been quiet in the battle front for the past few weeks, according to Ando except for some areas where the MILF, not belonging to Kato, had launched “sympathy attacks” against Army positions.

“In areas where there were no sightings or intelligence reports about Kato’s presence, the military is conducting civic military operations,” Ando said.

“Our troops are undergoing culture sensitivity seminars for them to win the hearts of the civilian populace, mostly Moro people displaced by decades of armed conflict,” he said.

Officers and company-level field commanders are attending peace advocacy seminars and undergoing conflict management training while there’s a lull in the manhunt against Kato and his men.

“Winning the hearts of the masses is winning the war,” Ando said, adding that the soldiers are also taught culture sensitivity since most of them are not from the local areas.

“While we are heavily armed, we, too, are soldiers for peace,” he said, reiterating the directive of AFP chief Alexander Yano that infantrymen must be “bearers of the seeds of peace in Mindanao.”