Fighting in Philippine south; 14 dead, 77 hurt

Manila, Sept 4: Six Philippine marines and eight Muslim rebels were killed and dozens more were wounded in the heaviest day of fighting in the latest campaign to flush out Islamic extremists from a remote southwestern island.

A senior military official said today that troops stormed a mountainous area on Jolo island, where leaders of the Abu Sayyaf group and two Indonesians suspected of carrying out the 2002 Bali bombings, were believed to be hiding.

Abu Sayyaf's leader, Khaddafy Janjalani, is suspected of sheltering Umar Patek and Dulmatin, Indonesian members of the regional group Jemaah Islamiah, which is seeking an Islamic superstate in parts of Southeast Asia.

''We believed that we had struck the main Abu Sayyaf group,'' Major-General Eugenio Cedo told reporters.

''We were told the high-value targets such as Khaddafy Janjalani, Umar Patek, Dulmatin, Radullan Saheron and Abu Solaiman were in the group that we've encountered.'' Nearly 5,000 soldiers, backed up by U.S. equipment and military advisers, have been battling more than 200 Abu Sayyaf members and supporters since late July in a fresh offensive on Jolo.

Manila, supported by Washington, wants to stop its remote islands from being used as bases by Jemaah Islamiah and Abu Sayyaf, which is blamed for the 2004 bombing of a ferry near Manila that killed more 100 people.

Colonel Allan Luga, an officer at the military command centre in Manila, said six soldiers died and 21 were wounded in nearly three hours of fighting.

Eight rebels were killed and 56 were wounded as helicopter gunships fired rockets at their hideout, forcing them to flee deeper into the mountains, Luga said.

It was the worst single day for fatalities since last November when a previous offensive on Jolo killed nine soldiers and at least 12 rebels.

The Philippines has lost 14 soldiers and police officers while the rebels have suffered 18 fatalities since August.

Manila will this week resume peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the largest of four Muslim rebel groups in the southern Philippines, to try and end an insurgency that has killed more than 120,000 people in nearly four decades.

REUTERS