Rights groups on Sunday condemned what they called a "massacre" of 14 farmers by police in the central Philippines as authorities defended the incident as a legitimate operation against suspected communist rebels.
Police say the 14 men on Saturday shot at officers with search warrants for illegal firearms, prompting them to return fire. But rights groups insist the men were "farmers asserting their rights to land", the latest victims caught up in a violent crackdown under President Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte's government has cancelled peace talks with communist rebels - who are waging a 50-year-old insurgency that has killed thousands - and has ordered his troops to "destroy" them.