MANILA, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Five soldiers were killed while six others wounded Wednesday when government troops clashed with a team of left-wing rebels in a coastal town in the southern Philippines, local TV news reports said.

    "We are still not sure if it was an ambush or encounter," said Col. Benito de Leon, spokesman for the 10th Infantry Division of the Army.

    The clash, taking place in Cateel, the country's southeastern province of Davao Oriental, came days after the military vowed to eliminate more than 15 New People's Army (NPA) guerrilla fronts within three months, local TV network GMA News said.

    During the first quarter this year, the military is hoping to dismantle 37 guerrilla fronts, the country's military chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. told reporters, adding that one guerrilla front covers at least five to six towns. There are 87 NPA currently, according to the military.

    President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last year ordered the military to crush the 40-year-old left-wing insurgency by 2010, and earlier this week extended Esperon's term of service for another three months because of ongoing operations against the rebel New People's Army.

    Army officials said earlier that the guerrillas lost about 1,400 fighters in battles and about 5,700 surrendered last year.

    But the rebels have denied battlefield losses reported by the military, and claimed several tactical gains against soldiers and police.

    Esperon, meanwhile, told reporters that security forces have arrested a suspected decision-maker of the rebel group.

    He said Randall Echanis was nabbed in Bago township in Negros Occidental province in the central Philippines. He is wanted in the killing of at least 15 men who were suspected by left-wing rebels of being military spies in the 1980s, Esperon said.