Five Filipino soldiers and three Abu Sayyaf militants were killed in the southern Philippines during an operation against the alleged perpetrators of last week's attack on a cathedral in Jolo that killed at least 20 people, the army said on Sunday.

Another 18 soldiers were wounded during the one hour, 50 minute-long gun battle that began at around 11:30 am on Saturday in Patikul in Sulu province, spokesperson Col. Gerry Besana said according to the official Philippine News Agency. </s> MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine military says three soldiers have been killed and 17 wounded in nearly two hours of fighting against about 150 Muslim militants in the south.

Regional military spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan says Abu Sayyaf gunmen withdrew after the fierce clash on Saturday in the mountains of Patikul town in Sulu province, and are being pursued by government forces. He says an unspecified number of militants were either wounded or killed.

Tan said Sunday the militants were led by Radulan Sahiron, a one-armed commander long wanted by the U.S. and Philippine governments for his alleged role in kidnappings for ransom and other acts.

Malaysian forces killed three Abu Sayyaf gunmen and captured two others in a failed kidnapping attempt in Malaysia's Sabah state near the southern Philippines on Thursday. </s> MANILA, Philippines — Fierce clashes erupted Friday between government troops and Muslim extremists in southern Philippines, leaving at least 14 combatants dead, the military said.

The dead included 10 Abu Sayyaf rebels, although troops recovered only three bodies, said military spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan.

Four were killed and nine wounded on the government side, he said.

The fighting began when army units encountered some 150 militants in Patikul township in Sulu province and exchanged fire until the extremists withdrew, Tan said. Soldiers then pounded the rebels' position with artillery fire and put up checkpoints as they pursued the militants.

The Abu Sayyaf, which is blacklisted by the U.S. and the Philippines as a terrorist organization, holds more than a dozen foreign and local hostages.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who took office in June, has ordered troops to destroy the Abu Sayyaf, known for its brutality and ties to foreign militants. He has ruled out the possibility of any peace talks with them as he pursues negotiations with two other larger Muslim insurgent groups. </s> MANILA, Philippines — A Philippine military spokesman says at least five soldiers and three Muslim militants were killed in a fierce battle as troops pressed a new offensive in the south following a deadly church bombing blamed on Islamic State group-linked gunmen.

Regional military spokesman Col. Gerry Besana says another five soldiers and 15 militants were wounded in nearly two hours of fighting Saturday between army troops and about 150 Abu Sayyaf gunmen in the jungles off Patikul town in Sulu province.

Besana says the militants were led by Abu Sayyaf commander Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, who has been suspected of plotting the bombing of a Roman Catholic cathedral in the Sulu capital of Jolo on Sunday that killed 22 people and wounded more than 100 others. Sawadjaan apparently escaped. </s> MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine troops killed three suspected Abu Sayyaf militants and suffered five fatalities during a firefight on a remote southern island, the military said on Saturday.

The clash with more than 100 members of the Abu Sayyaf group broke out in the town of Patikul in the Sulu province at 11:30 a.m. as troops pursued those behind a church attack on Sunday, Colonel Gerry Besana, spokesman for the military’s Western Mindanao Command said.

The church bombing in Sulu, which killed 22 people and wounded more than 100 including civilians and soldiers, was a suicide attack carried out by an Indonesian couple, with help of the Abu Sayyaf group, Interior Minister Eduardo Año said on Friday.

Abu Sayyaf is a militant organization notorious for kidnappings and extremist factions and has pledged allegiance to Islamic State. Sulu province, in the country’s Mindanao region, is a known stronghold of the group.

The encounter in Patikul lasted nearly two hours, Besana said, with five soldiers and 15 militants also wounded.

Martial law has been in place in Mindanao since domestic and foreign fighters dressed in black outfits overran Marawi City in 2017 and clung on through five months of air strikes and street battles reminiscent of scenes in Syria and Iraq.
At least 14 are killed in clashes with suspected Abu Sayyaf militants in Sulu, Philippines.