Manila, Jan 30, SPA - Twelve armed men were killed in a clash with government troops in the southern Philippines, where the gunmen earlier pillaged a town and slayed four militiamen, a marine spokesman said Sunday. The clash erupted Saturday when the suspects, numbering around 50, opened fire on a group of marines and policemen hunting them down in the town of Tubaran, Lanao del Sur province, 810 kilometres south of Manila. "The firefight lasted for almost eight hours and resulted in the death of 12 armed men," spokesman Captain Rommel Abrau said in a statement. "Three marines were wounded during the encounter." Abrau said troops believed there were more gunmen killed in the fighting, but their bodies were dragged off by their comrades. Troops recovered eight rifles, four grenade launchers and assorted ammunition from the scene of the firefight. Abrau said the gunmen were behind the killing of four paramilitary troops in Tubaran last Wednesday and the pillage of the town proper. --SP 1038 Local Time 0738 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/235503