Philippine commandos land on Jolo, residents flee

MANILA, Aug 11 (Reuters) Philippine commandos landed on a remote southern island today to reinforce troops fighting Muslim rebels after gunbattles this week killed nearly 60 people, including 26 soldiers.

Thousand of civilians have fled to safer areas on Jolo island fearing fresh fighting, residents said.

Military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Ernesto Torres said the commandos were part of two army battalions being sent to Jolo island to hunt down about 500 Muslim rebels, including a small band of extremists with suspected ties to Jemaah Islamiah (JI).

''We're stepping up our operations to cordon off and destroy the Abu Sayyaf,'' Torres told reporters as an air force transport plane landed on Jolo, ferrying 120 commandos joining the hunt for the rebels.

The Abu Sayyaf is blamed for the Philippines' worst attack -- a ferry bombing that killed more than 100 people in 2004.

Torres said one battalion of 500 soldiers would be airlifted from an army base in the north and another battalion of 500 men from the central Philippines was due next week to beef up some 5,000 troops already on the island.

Fearing an intensified army offensive, more than 10,000 people have fled from their homes and farms around three towns on Jolo where the fighting erupted on Thursday.

Local officials appealed for food, medicine, blankets and fresh potable water as a stream of displaced people flocked to community centres, schools and town halls elsewhere on the island.

The islands of the southern Philippines, especially Jolo and nearby Basilan, are hotbeds of extremism. They are also home to pirate gangs that prey on shipping in the South China Sea.

The army shelled Muslim rebel positions and raked them with helicopter fire on Thursday night but suspended operations on Friday following a request from the provincial governor due to a Muslim religious holiday.

There were no immediate reports of fighting on Saturday.

The rebels are believed to be from Abu Sayyaf and from Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), a Muslim rebel group that signed a peace deal with the largely Catholic central government in 1996.

The MNLF has said its members attacked troops after one of ts leaders was killed and that it had asked the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to help stop the fighting.

Twenty-six soldiers were killed in the fighting, military officials said. They said 32 rebels died, and also a young boy who was caught in crossfire.

Due to family ties on Jolo, there are close links between the Abu Sayyaf and the MNLF and sometimes an overlap in allegiance.

About 100 US special forces are also on Jolo to help train the Philippine military but they are forbidden from fighting under Philippine law.

REUTERS LPB DS1442