Soldiers clashed with militants linked to al-Qaeda in the southern Philippines yesterday, leaving three rebels and two soldiers dead just days after a top Indonesian terror suspect eluded a military raid on a nearby island, an official said.
The fighting took place in Maimbung township on the western coast of Jolo island, a stronghold of the Islamic extremist Abu Sayyaf group about 950km south of Manila, while troops were searching for a local businesswoman kidnapped by militants last week, regional military spokesman Major Eugene Batara said.
The bodies of three rebels and an M-16 rifle were recovered from the scene of the clash, Batara said. Two soldiers were killed and five others wounded and transferred to an army hospital, he said.
Batara said troops were on a mission to rescue Rosalie Lao, 45, a Jolo resident who was abducted by the rebels on Jan. 28.
Last week, troops on nearby Tawi-Tawi island shot and killed an Abu Sayyaf commander, Wahab Upao, but missed the Indonesian terror suspect, Dulmatin, one of several operatives of the Indonesian militant group Jemaah Islamiyah believed to be hiding in the southern Philippines
Dulmatin has been implicated in the 2002 bombings that killed 202 people in Bali, Indonesia.
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