Ampatuan: Police and soldiers launched a manhunt Tuesday for gunmen who ambushed and killed a Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) field commander and his aide in a remote village here Monday night.

According to Philippines News Agency, Hams Kindo, alias Commander Tuabak, 46, commander of the MILF's 118th Base Command, and Mohammad Acob, 44, were killed when their van was waylaid along a dirt road in Sitio Bliss, Barangay Kapinpilan around 8 p.m. Ampatuan police chief Capt. Guiseppe Tamayo said responding officers found two rifles and ammunition inside the vehicle. The victims were pronounced dead at a hospital.

'This senseless act of violence is a blatant disregard for human life and a direct affront to peace and order and the rule of law,' Tamayo said in a radio interview. The perpetrators are believed to be residents of the village, police said.