The Philippines army gained rebel territory last week

One person was killed in each of the bomb attacks and the raid on the town killed 14 civilians.

The raid was carried out by 50 armed men who rounded up the inhabitants of Calauit town, on Mindanao island, and then opened fire, the military said.

The security forces have blamed Muslim separatist guerrillas for the raid and one of the bomb attacks.

The rebels - the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) - have denied involvement.

Fighting broke out between the two sides last week when the military attacked an MILF stronghold on Mindanao, in an attempt to flush out a separate kidnap group which the US says are terrorists. The military says 140 people, mostly rebels, died in the offensive.

The group has been fighting for a separate Muslim state in the south of the mainly Catholic country for the past three decades.

Airport bomb

The most recent of Thursday's incidents occurred when a bomb planted in a van exploded outside Awang airport in the southern city of Cotabato.

The blast tore apart a row of restaurants facing the entrance to the terminal, causing a number of casualties.

Not far from the airport is the entrance to an army camp.

A few hours before, a bomb exploded in a market in the town of Kabacan.

Security forces said that among the casualties was the man carrying the bomb, suggesting it exploded prematurely. The military blamed the Kabacan attack on the MILF.

Armed raid

The bomb attacks followed the raid on the town of Calauit.

Police said the attackers killed at least 14 people, including an 18-month-old baby. All of the victims were Christian. Another four people were wounded, and three more are missing.

The attackers set light to several buildings before retreating.

An MILF spokesman denied that his men had carried out the attack on the village, but said the guerrillas would investigate it.

Government troops were deployed to secure the village, which lies in a remote mountainous area, and pursue the assailants, military and police officials said.

Scepticism

Rufa Guiam, a professor at Mindanao State University, said that not all local people believed that the MILF were behind the latest violence.

"In central Mindanao, there are a lot of people who have guns, and who are capable of attacking villagers," she told the BBC's East Asia Today programme.

"Some political leaders have private armies, there are also lawless 'kidnap-for-ransom' groups. The military do not make any distinction between all these people when they make their accusations," she said.

She said that the MILF denial was therefore plausible.

Peace plan

On Tuesday, President Gloria Arroyo agreed a draft proposal aimed at ending MILF violence.

The MILF says the army should withdraw before talks can resume

It envisages a permanent truce, the disarming of MILF rebels, coupled with an amnesty and promises of political and economic reform.

A spokesman for President Arroyo told BBC News Online that this was the third such draft communiqu�, and "from our side this is the final plan".

A ceasefire was signed with the rebels in 2001, but sporadic violence has severely tested it.

Ignacio Bunye said that peace negotiators were now in Mindanao, trying to contact the guerrillas in order to present the proposal.