Philippine troops take militant camps, scores dead

Philippine troops overran two southern jungle camps of al-Qaida-linked militants in fighting that killed 23 soldiers and 31 guerrillas. It was the deadliest clash in years and a top commander described it Thursday as a "slugfest."

More than 400 marines, army and police commandos Wednesday stormed the hilltop camps on Basilan Island on Wednesday in raids targeting about 150 Abu Sayyaf militants led by two terror suspects wanted for a series of bomb attacks and kidnappings, said navy chief Vice Adm. Ferdinand Golez.

Heavy fighting ensued when a unit of marine reinforcements met up with a large group of fleeing militants, leaving them outnumbered with 18 marines killed, Golez said.

"It was a slugfest," regional military commander Maj. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino told The Associated Press by telephone.

"It was really close-quarter fighting so we couldn't use our artillery," he said, adding troops were still pursuing small pockets of fleeing gunmen Thursday.

A total of 23 troops and police died and 18 were wounded, four of them in serious condition, Golez said.

The militants, who Golez said possibly included members of the main Muslim separatist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front, suffered 31 dead. Troops did not recover all the bodies because the militants dragged away some, he said.

A spokesman for the Moro rebels, Eid Kabalu, confirmed that 10 of the dead were the group's members and accused the military of attacking them. He said they were not with the Abu Sayyaf and only happened to be in the area when the fighting erupted.

Unlike the Abu Sayyaf, which is considered a terrorist organization, the larger Moro rebel group has been negotiating with the government an autonomy deal for minority Muslims in the southern Philippines. Sporadic clashes have erupted in recent months.

Although weakened by yearslong U.S.-backed offensives, about 400 Abu Sayyaf gunmen on Basilan and nearby Jolo Island and the Zamboanga peninsula have recently turned to ransom kidnappings to raise funds for terror attacks, officials said.

The militants held three international Red Cross workers on Jolo for several months this year, as well as a dozen Filipino hostages. All have been released or rescued.

The daylong clashes Wednesday led to the biggest single-day military losses in recent years, Dolorfino said. In August 2007, fighting on Basilan killed 25 soldiers and 27 militants, a month after 10 marines were beheaded in an ambush.

The latest offensive targeted Abu Sayyaf chieftains Khair Mundus and Furuji Indama, said Rear Adm. Alex Pama. It was not clear if they were among the dead but a brother of Indama, also an Abu Sayyaf commander, was killed, Dolorfino said.

U.S. and Philippine security officials have especially wanted to capture Mundus, a hard-line militant who was arrested several years ago but escaped. He is suspected of having connections to Middle East financiers who could provide funds to his group, according to police intelligence officials.

Indama, a young ruthless militant, is suspected of orchestrating the marine beheadings. The atrocity shocked the nation and an angry President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo then ordered the military to crush the militants.

The two seized camps served as a stronghold and a bomb factory for the Abu Sayyaf on Basilan, about 550 miles (880 kilometers) south of Manila.

Troops found several bombs, booby traps and 15 assault rifles and grenade launchers in the camps, Pama said. The bombs may have been intended for another wave of terror attacks, he said.

The Abu Sayyaf is on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations and is suspected of having received funds and training from al-Qaida.

Since 2002, hundreds of U.S. troops have been training Filipino soldiers and providing them with intelligence. They are also securing development projects like schools and medical clinics in an effort to convince the local Muslim population in the country's poorest provinces to turn their back on the militants.

U.S. Adm. Timothy Keating, head of the Hawaii-based U.S. Pacific Command, expressed sympathies to the families of slain Philippine troops during a previously scheduled visit to Manila on Thursday.

"We have reinforced our commitment to sustain this effort in this very important endeavor," he told reporters after meeting Philippine officials.

Abu Sayyaf, which means "Father of the Swordsman" in Arabic, was founded in 1991 in Basilan with support from Asian and Middle Eastern radical groups. It gained notoriety in 2001 when gunmen kidnapped 20 people, including three Americans, from a Philippine resort. One American was beheaded and another killed in a military rescue.

The Abu Sayyaf also is believed to be sheltering members of the Indonesian-based group Jemaah Islamiyah, including Umar Patek and Dulmatin. The two are suspected of masterminding the Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people in 2002, then fleeing to the southern Philippines to evade a crackdown in Indonesia.

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Associated Press writers Hrvoje Hranjski and Teresa Cerojano contributed to this report.