Philippine navy commandos clash with suspected militants, leaving 10 dead

Philippine troops clashed with suspected Muslim militants on a southern island Tuesday, leaving four navy commandos and six of the guerrillas dead, a military spokesman said.

The fighting took place on the small island of Lanhil, northeast of Basilan island where U.S.-backed troops have been pursuing al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels, said marine spokesman Lt. Col. Ariel Caculitan.

He said troops were responding to reports from civilians that "lawless elements" had infiltrated Lanhil when the clash erupted. Four commandos and six of the attackers were killed, while two sailors were wounded but in a stable condition, he said.

It was not immediately clear whether the guerrillas belonged to the Abu Sayyaf, which is notorious for bomb attacks, kidnappings and beheadings.

Abu Sayyaf militants and cohorts from Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiyah terror network have used Basilan and nearby Jolo island to evade government forces. According to military officials, they have sought refuge with Muslim separatists who signed a cease-fire with the Manila government.

At least 50 government troops were killed, some of them beheaded, in fighting in July and August.

Last week, two soldiers were killed and 10 wounded on Basilan when troops, searching for Abu Sayyaf militants, clashed with Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels. The MILF rebels have denied links with terrorists.

Arroyo rallies Philippine troops

Tens of thousands of people are fleeing their homes in the southern Philippines as the military steps up its offensive against Abu Sayyaf fighters, sparking the heaviest clashes for years.

The fighting is centred on the mainly Muslim islands of Jolo and Basilan.

On Thursday Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Philippine president, travelled amid tight security to the southern city of Zamboanga to rally troops and receive a progress briefing from military commanders.

She has vowed to destroy the Abu Sayyaf group - which her government says has links to al-Qaeda – and has deployed thousands of troops to the region.

They are backed up by advisers from US special forces who are helping to train and provide intelligence to Philippine forces although they are barred by the Philippine constitution from taking part in combat operations.

Bomb warning

Earlier this week, Arroyo warned that the renewed military offensive may spark reprisal bomb attacks elsewhere in the country.

Her comments on Tuesday were followed hours later by a bomb explosion in Zamboanga that wounded 14 people.

Speaking after her arrival in the city on Thursday, Arroyo said the military would not be diverted from in its assault on the Abu Sayyaf group.

However, she said she had ordered officials to launch a "humanitarian offensive'' on Basilan and Jolo to balance the military assault.

Later, speaking on the island of Basilan, she praised Philippine troops during a 30 minute flying visit to one of the military's forward bases.

"Thank you for fighting terrorism," she told them.

The upsurge in fighting followed an ambush in mid-July, blamed on the Abu Sayyaf, in which 14 marines died, 10 of them beheaded.

In early August, gun battles in Jolo killed at least 27 army soldiers and 32 Muslim fighters.

The most recent fighting broke out last weekend on Basilan, with 15 soldiers and up to 30 Abu Sayyaf fighters killed.

Relief officials say the fighting has forced nearly 24,000 people to flee their homes in Jolo and Basilan, with 40 hamlets evacuated and 14 schools closed since early July.

"The situation in Basilan remains critical due to ongoing operations against Abu Sayyaf Group targets," the government relief agency said.

This week the government called off planned peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front - the largest Muslim separatist group - although it insists the move was not linked to the upsurge in fighting.

Questions asked

Al Jazeera's Veronica Pedrosa, who is in the southern Philippines, says that with amid mounting numbers of casualties and displaced civilians, more questions are being asked about the offensive.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Force, the two main rebel groups, also have a large presence on the two islands.

The military says neither group is being targeted by the current offensive, but army commanders on the ground admit some of their men are fighting alongside Abu Sayyaf.

As a result, there are fears that by stepping up the fight against Abu Sayyaf, the government could widen the conflict.

Philippines' Arroyo says offensive against militants in south may prompt attacks elsewhere

A military offensive in the southern Philippines may prompt al-Qaida-linked militants to sow terror elsewhere in the country, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo warned Tuesday, saying she has ordered the military and police to bolster security.

The government will not ease off the offensive despite calls from some sectors to halt the fighting because doing so would endanger the country's security, fail to give justice to slain soldiers and embolden terrorists, she said in her opening statement at a meeting of the National Security Council.

U.S.-backed troops bombarded Muslim rebel strongholds with artillery on Basilan island Sunday, a day after 15 marines and 40 militants were killed in a fierce clash, officials said.

The marines were killed when their unit attacked a jungle hide-out of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group near Basilan's remote Ungkaya Pukan town, sparking a daylong clash during which an air force pilot also died when his helicopter crashed at sea, the military said.

The military claimed about 40 Abu Sayyaf insurgents were killed, including two commanders who allegedly took part in last month's beheadings of 10 marines on Basilan.

On nearby Jolo island, troops raided a suspected Abu Sayyaf safe house in Indanan township early Sunday and took into custody 19 men, women and children, army Maj. Gen. Ruben Rafael said. After questioning, 14 were released and investigators were trying to determine if the other five were Abu Sayyaf gunmen, he added.

"With the victory of our troops and police against terrorists in Basilan and Sulu, it is not farfetched for them to attempt to sow terror in other parts of the country," Arroyo said. "That is why I have ordered our national police and armed forces to coordinate with local governments and the people to safeguard our cities and communities against any terrorist plot.

"We will not back off from our offensive in order to give justice to our marines, to give peace and progress to our country," she said, urging Filipinos to unite behind security forces.

But the government will continue to pursue peace in the south and hopes to resume talks with a larger Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, next month in Malaysia, she said.

MILF chief negotiator Mohaqher Iqbal said a scheduled meeting with government counterparts on Wednesday was canceled for unclear reasons.

Chief government negotiator Rodolfo Garcia said he sought the postponement to give him more time to consolidate data and the government's position.

Arroyo ordered a fresh offensive against the Abu Sayyaf, listed by Washington as a terrorist organization, after it was implicated in the July 10 beheadings of 10 marines after a clash in Basilan's Al-Barka township. The MILF admitted its rebels killed 14 marines during the clash, accusing them of encroaching into a rebel stronghold, but denied involvement in the beheadings.

Fighting in Southern Philippines Kills at Least 20 Soldiers

Philippine military officials say fighting between Muslim rebels and government forces on a southern island has killed at least 20 soldiers.

Suspected Abu Sayyaf militants ambushed a convoy of troops Thursday, killing at least 10 soldiers and wounding two others. The attack took place near the town of Maimbung, on the southern island of Jolo.

Another 10 soldiers were killed later in the day during a gunbattle, also near Maimbung.

The clashes are the latest in a recent wave of violence in the southern Philippines.

Troops have been massing in the southern part of the country since early July when 14 marines were killed on the nearby island of Basilan. Ten of them were beheaded.

The military and government have blamed Abu Sayyaf and another rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), for the beheadings.

The United States considers Abu Sayyaf a terrorist group with ties to the radical Jemaah Islamiyah organization. Philippine forces have been on the offensive against Abu Sayyaf since 2005, fighting primarily on the island of Jolo.

The MILF has been fighting for self-rule on Basilan for nearly three decades. In 2003, the government signed a truce agreement with the group, but clashes continue.

Kidnapped Italian priest released in Philippines

Giancarlo Bossi, the Italian priest abducted last month in the Philippines, has been released, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said late Thursday.

"Father Giancarlo Bossi has been freed, a car is bringing him to a Philippines police station," Italy's ANSA news agency reported Prodi as saying.

Bossi had managed to get a message to Italy's ambassador to Manila, Anna Fedele Rubens, saying he was fine, an Italian foreign ministry spokesman said.

Pope Benedict XVI welcomed the news with "great joy," said Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi.

Bossi, 57, is a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME). He was seized on June 10 in Zamboanga Sibugay in the southeast Philippines.

Gian Battista Zanchi, a senior PIME official said that Bossi would be given a medical check once he had arrived at Zamboanga.

Prodi thanked all those who had worked for the liberation, including the foreign ministry crisis team which had remained in constant contact with the Philippines authorities.

Philippines military officers in the region originally blamed the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for the abduction.

Last week, Philippines marines searching for Bossi on MILF-held territory on Basilan island were ambushed by the group and 14 of them were killed.

A close adviser to President Gloria Arroyo suggested that Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic extremist group known to have ties with Al-Qaida, might be responsible.

Troops are killed, some beheaded, in southern Philippines

At least 14 government troops were killed in some of the heaviest fighting with Muslim insurgents in the southern Philippines in recent months, officials said Wednesday.

Military officials said they had recovered the bodies of 14 marines after clashes with suspected Abu Sayyaf militants late Tuesday in Tipo-tipo, a hinterland town on Basilan island, and that at least 10 of them had been beheaded.

A marine spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Ariel Caculitan, said in Manila that 50 marines had clashed with more than 300 rebels. "We were totally outnumbered," he said.

Major General Ben Mohammad Dolorfino suggested that the marines had been beheaded by Abu Sayyaf in retaliation for the slaying of the son of one of the group's leaders. "They got angry, that's why they decapitated the marines," Dolorfino said.

However, leaders of another group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, said it was its own fighters who had fought with the marines and killed 23 of them. But the front's spokesman, Abu Majid, denied the front's fighters had beheaded the marines. He said this was done by "unidentified groups" after the fighting, and that the front planned to investigate. He said four rebels had been killed and seven wounded.

Majid also said the violence could have been avoided had the government troops, who had entered the area in search of a kidnapped Roman Catholic priest from Italy, consulted with the front first. "We have all the mechanism in the cease-fire that allows coordination and to prevent this kind of unfortunate incident," he said.

The military said the marines had been patrolling Tipo-tipo to check out reports that the Reverend Giancarlo Bossi, who was kidnapped last month in Zamboanga Sibugay Province, also in the southern Philippines, had been taken to Basilan.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has been fighting for a separate Islamic state for Filipino Muslims in the south for three decades; a cease-fire is in effect, although there have been violations. The agreement requires both sides to coordinate their movements if one side ventures into an area where the other side is present. Majid said he did not understand why the marines did not notify the front of its operations in Tipo-tipo.

Mohaqher Iqbal, the head of the front's negotiating panel, said: "Our troops thought they were under attack. That's why they fought back. It should have not happened."

The Philippine government had said that some elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front were also working with Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah, two groups that have been blamed for some of the most horrific terrorist attacks in the country since 2001.

The front has denied any connection with Abu Sayyaf or Jemaah Islamiyah, but promised to purge its ranks of extremists.

Bali suspect escapes Philippines raid

A feared Muslim rebel leader and one of the suspected masterminds of the 2002 Bali bombings escaped a dawn raid on their island hideout in the southern Philippines, the military said.

Isnilon Hapilon, one of the heads of Abu Sayyaf, the Philippines' fiercest militant group, and Umar Patek, believed to have planned the Indonesian resort island attack that killed more than 200, including 88 Australians, fled their camp on Jolo, 950km south of Manila.

Major Eugene Batara said three Abu Sayyaf rebels were captured and two M16 rifles seized in the raid, which is part of a long-running campaign to flush Islamic militants from Jolo, where they train and plot attacks across Southeast Asia.

Batara said US-trained troops were still combing areas around the camp.

Hapilon, who has a $US5 million ($A6.12 million) bounty on his head from the US government for kidnapping Americans, has emerged as one of Abu Sayyaf's top strategists after troops killed the group's top two leaders and more than 70 members in a campaign that started in August last year.

Umar Patek and suspected Bali accomplice Dulmatin, also an Indonesian, are sheltering with the Abu Sayyaf.

Abu Sayyaf is one of four Islamic rebel groups operating in the southern Philippines, where Muslims have fought for decades for independence from the largely Catholic nation.
But while other rebels have entered peace talks, Abu Sayyaf is involved in regular clashes with government troops, although its practice of kidnapping for ransom has fallen away in recent years.