Hundreds of people have fled their villages on the remote southwestern Philippine island of Jolo as fighting escalated today between soldiers and Muslim rebels.
Four rebels were caught trying to slip through a naval blockade, military commanders said as an offensive to flush out members of the Abu Sayyaf group in the mountains near Indanan town went into a third day.
Philippine security forces, backed by US intelligence, are trying to stop Abu Sayyaf, which has ties to Jemaah Islamiah, al-Qaeda's regional franchise, from using the country's southern islands as bases to train and plot bombings in Southeast Asia.
Abu Sayyaf, the smallest of four Muslim rebel groups, with around 400 members, is blamed for kidnappings and bombings, including a blast aboard a ferry near Manila in February 2004 that killed more than 100 people.
About 500 soldiers are fighting around 200 militants led by Khaddafy Janjalani and Indonesians Umar Patek and Dulmatin, the main suspects in October 2002 bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
The army said five soldiers were wounded and a civilian guide killed in the initial skirmishes, with an undetermined number of rebels killed in three days of ground and air assaults.
Despite numerous campaigns on Jolo, including an offensive by 5,000 troops in 2004, Abu Sayyaf leaders and their foreign colleagues have eluded capture.
Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines have been seeking greater independence since the 1960s in a conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people.