Seven members of the Abu Sayyaf group, including the leader of the 2000 Sipadan island hostage crisis, were killed Saturday morning by Philippine troops near the town of Patikul, Sulu in southwest Philippines, the military said.

Col. Juancho Sabban, commander of the 3rd Marine Brigade in Sulu, said that among those killed in the clash in Sitio Lapih were Kumander Sabri Isah and Kumander Mahidon Aruk, two regional leaders of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group.

He said Isah was the original kidnapper of the Sipadan tourists and Aruk was a member of the Abu Sayyaf faction led by bandit chieftain Radulan Sahiron.

Sabban was not able to identify the rest of the slain bandits. He said that the fighting had ended and government forces were doing mopping up operations.

He said that among the evidence recovered in the area were five high-powered rifles, including rifle-grenade launchers. Documents and equipment such as communications gear were also recovered from the site.

Two marines were wounded lightly in the encounter, which took place after the Marines' Special Operations Group got information that suspected bandits were hiding in the area.

The operation is part of the military's continuing offensive against the Abu Sayyaf, which obtained prominence in world media in April 2000 after they abducted 21 mostly European tourists in Sipadan diving resort in Malaysia. The hostages were released after payment of millions of dollars of ransom.

Some Abu Sayyaf members have been reportedly trained in guerilla warfare by the al-Qaida network of Osama bin Laden and are linked with the Southeast Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiya.

Source: Xinhua