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Troops lower boom on Abu Sayyaf

Scores of civilians were trapped as Philippine military helicopters fired rockets and troops rained gunfire on a hospital and a church taken over by Muslim rebels in the south yesterday, officials said.

At least six people out of 20 kidnapped by the guerrillas from an island resort a week ago were rescued or managed to escape in the confusion, President Gloria Arroyo said.

Four of them were Filipinos, including an 8-year-old boy, but Arroyo did not say who the other two were. Military officials said they were still confirming identities.

There was no confirmed news on the whereabouts of the other people kidnapped at the time, including three Americans, but they are also believed to be trapped in the hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.

Residents said more than a dozen people were killed, including civilians caught in the crossfire, but the military said it could only confirm four soldiers and at least one rebel dead during the day.

Arroyo, speaking on national television, later said the rebel leader Khadafy Janjalani was among the dead.

"With his death, the bandits have lost their source of strength," she said. "To the leaders of the Abu Sayyaf -- there is no place to hide, so better release all the hostages and surrender. It needs only one bullet to get you."

Some 50 Abu Sayyaf rebels, fleeing from troops along with their hostages, rampaged through Lamitan, 900km south of Manila, before dawn and took over a church and the town's main hospital.

They claimed they had captured an additional 200 people, including doctors, patients and a priest. However, a man who escaped from the hospital said he estimated there were about 100 trapped there.

Troops directed mortar rounds and gunfire at the rebel positions and then sent in helicopter gunships to blast guerrilla snipers perched in the belfry of the St Peters Church and on the roof of the adjoining hospital.

But by evening, fighting tapered off and the military said there was no return fire from the rebels.

"We have the upper hand. We are optimistic we will be able to rescue all the hostages safely."

Three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy and a hotel security guard kidnapped last Sunday, managed to escape along with some of those captured in Lamitan earlier in the day.

Ten fishermen abducted by the guerrillas were also freed.

"One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away," said Joey Candido, who was taken captive in the hospital. "I saw two Americans inside hugging each other in fright."

A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group would execute hostages if the military did not pull back.

"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."

But the government refused to back down. "We shall pursue these policies until we annihilate the Abu Sayyaf terrorists, capture them or force them to surrender," said presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao.
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