Some 18 Philippine Army soldiers were killed, with 53 more wounded, during a Saturday firefight with 120 Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) gunmen in Barangay Baguindan in Basilan's Tipo Tipo town, according to the Armed Forces.
Western Mindanao Command spokesperson Maj. Filemon Tan said that five ASG fighters were also killed in the battle, among them a Moroccan national identified as Mohammad Khattab.
The son of senior ASG leader Isnilon Hapilon, Ubaida Hapilon, was also reportedly killed in the fighting.
Some 20 ASG men were also believed injured, among them ASG leader Radzmil Jannatul - also known as Kubayb.
Tan added that the clash broke out at 7:55 a.m. and involved the Army's 4th Special Forces Battalion and the 44th Infantry Battalion. The fighting lasted until around 5:30 p.m.
Philippine security forces have been hunting the Islamic extremist-group Abu Sayyaf for two weeks in an operation launched across the southern Basilan and Jolo islands -- two remote strongholds of the rebels in the mainly Catholic Asian nation.
Saturday's clash also came just a day after former missionary Rolando del Torchio -- held hostage for six months by suspected Islamic militants -- was found aboard a ferry docked on Jolo.
The Abu Sayyaf is a small group of militants infamous for kidnapping foreigners and demanding huge ransoms, as well as for being behind deadly bombings in the country where 80 percent of the population are Catholics.
Eighteen other foreign hostages are being held in the Philippines, most or all of them thought to be by the Abu Sayyaf.
The Abu Sayyaf was established in the early 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.
It was a radical offshoot of a Muslim separatist insurgency in the southern Philippines that has claimed more than 100,000 lives since the 1970s.
In a statement Tan added that the military "continues its intensified focused military operations in tracking down the ASG (Abu Sayyaf Group) responsible for the series of kidnappings and atrocities in the area."
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/562116/news/nation/military-says-18-soldiers-killed-53-wounded-in-clash-with-abu-sayyaf
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