Cotabato City, Philippines  - Three civilians, including a 10-year-old girl, were killed Friday in an attack by communist rebels in the southern Philippines, police said.

The victims were riding a truck owned by a logging company when guerrillas opened fire at the vehicle in Lanuza town in Surigao del Sur province, 825 kilometres south of Manila.

Senior Inspector Reynaldo Salubre, the town police chief, said a fourth civilian was injured in the attack.

Salubre said the truck was carrying dozens of employees of the logging company and commuters when it was ambushed along a highway in Lanuza.

He said some of the civilians jumped off the truck as the rebels fired indiscriminately.

Communist rebels have opposed logging and mining operations in the Philippines. They have attacked logging and mining companies in the past in a bid to stop their operations.

The guerrillas have been fighting the Philippine government since the late 1960s, making the movement one of the longest-running leftist insurgencies in Asia.