Sayyaf men, 1 soldier killed in Sulu, Basilan clashes

Sulu military spokesman Capt. Anthony Bulao said the fighting eased by nightfall without any hostage being freed.

A military report said the troops were conducting operation to rescue kidnap victims being held by Abu Sayyaf Group.

The two coast guardsmen took advantage of the confusion during the firefight and escaped.

As many as 200 Abu Sayyaf members were involved in the fighting that was so fierce, the military had to use artillery to drive the extremists back, Detoyato said. They only found out about each other’s escape when they saw each other at a hospital on Thursday, reported AFP.

He said the government did not suffer any casualty but “reports from ground troops, intelligence units, civilians and action agents” had it that at least 15 bandits had been killed. Numerous bandits were believed to be wounded in the encounter. “That is unusual because they normally disengage immediately”, he observed, without offering a theory for the change in tactic.

At least 17 Abu Sayyaf bandits and a soldier were killed in clashes in Sulu and Basilan on Wednesday, the military had claimed.

“We have no word if the other four captives were able to run away from the rebels”, he said, adding the offensive on Jolo to free all hostages, including another Malaysian, a Dutch national and a Japanese national, would continue.

“They are here with us and having a meal right now”, Bulao told reporters by phone from an army base on Jolo.

The coast guard personnel had been kidnapped in May in Aliguay Island, Dapitan City – home to two high-end resorts frequented by foreign and domestic tourists – alongside a village chief who was beheaded last week.

Both Basilan and Jolo on the country’s southwestern tip, are known strongholds of the Abu Sayyaf, a loose band of several hundred armed men that was founded in the 1990s with seed money from the Al-Qaeda network of Osama Bin Laden.

It has also been blamed for the worst bomb attacks in the country, including the firebombing of a ferry off Manila Bay in 2004 that killed more than 100 people.