Troops battle Muslim militants after church attack

MANILA — Philippine troops clashed with Abu Sayyaf gunmen Saturday in fierce jungle fighting that killed five soldiers and three militants, as the military pushed forward with a fresh offensive sparked by a deadly church bombing blamed on the extremists.

Regional military spokesman Col. Gerry Besana said another five soldiers and 15 militants were wounded in nearly two hours of fighting between the army and about 150 Islamic State group-linked fighters in the jungles near Patikul town in Sulu province.

The militants were led by Abu Sayyaf commander Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, who is suspected of helping plot the Jan. 27 bombing of a Roman Catholic cathedral in the Sulu capital of Jolo that killed 22 people and wounded more than 100. Sawadjaan apparently withdrew and escaped with the rest of the gunmen, military officials said.

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered government forces to destroy the Abu Sayyaf following the bombing of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral. The attack has renewed terrorism fears across the Philippines, where the national police have been put on full alert and security has been strengthened in churches, shopping malls and other public areas.

Abu Sayyaf, which has about 300 to 400 armed fighters, has been blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization because of years of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation.

Government forces have over the years sought to crush the group, including in Jolo, a poverty-wracked island of more than 700,000 people where Muslims are the majority.

Since the church attack, the air force has launched air strikes on suspected militant bases near Patikul.

Duterte told reporters last week that the Jolo church bombing was a suicide attack carried out by a militant couple.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano said Friday that an Indonesian couple was behind the suicide bombing and it was aimed at fomenting sectarian conflict in the south. The Indonesian man reportedly used the nom de guerre Abu Huda and Philippine authorities said they would coordinate with their Indonesian counterparts to try to validate the identities of the two.

Jim Gomez is an Associated Press writer.