Manila: Four Filipino soldiers and 37 militants were killed as the military seized a terrorist camp after 10 days of intense clashes in the south, sources said.

Fifteen more soldiers were wounded in the clash from May 24 to June 3 that resulted in the takeover of the Maute Group’s camp in Butig, one of Muslim-dominated villages in Lanao del Sur, Col. Reseller Murillo, commander of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade said in a statement that reached Manila on Saturday.

One of the slain Maute members was Wowwie Mimbantas, son of Aleem Mimbatas, former leader of the 38-year-old Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Milf), Murillo said. The number of slain Maute members increased since the military bombarded Camp Darul Imam with OV-10 bombers and 81mm mortars on May 29, Murillo said.

The Maute group carried their dead as they abandoned Camp Darul Imam, said Murillo. “Found at the camp were rows of concrete fox holes, two flags of the Islamic State [Daesh], wooden huts with bullet holes, grenade launcher, improvised explosive devices, and a rebel uniform,” he added.

Although the camp was at a higher level of Lanao’s tropical rainforest surrounded by swamps, clashes between soldiers and the Maute group displaced 7,800 Filipino-Muslims in Butig since February, said Murillo, adding that Butig’s 16 villages have 16,642 residents

Clashes between the military and the Maute group began when the latter attacked the patrol base of the Army’s 51st IB in Butig town on February 20. The clashes left six soldiers and 12 Maute members dead. Residents were displaced since then, military reports said.

After two weeks of clashes, the military reported it had overtaken Maute’s camp on March 1. Displaced residents, however, were not allowed to return to their homes.

Despite the military’s reported overtaking of the Maute camp, the group’s members kidnapped six workers from a saw mill and beheaded two of them in Butig town in April. The group was blamed for the bombing of the transmission towers of the National Grid Corp of the Philippines in Lanao del Sur, also in April.

In 2013, the Maute group attacked a military checkpoint in Madalum town, Lanao del Sur, said the military, adding a neutralised Southeast Asian terror group was the source of the war equipment of the Maute group.

The Maute group was known earlier to have links with Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian conduit of the Al Qaida terror group. Now, it has a total of 100 young members.

Conflict between government soldiers and two other Filipino-Muslim rebels such as the 46-year old Moro National Liberation Frint (MNLF) and the Milf, left more than 150,000 dead since the early 70s. With the help of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Philippine government has forged pro-autonomy peace settlements with these rebel groups.