3 Philippine Soldiers Killed in Abu Sayyaf Landmine Attack

Islamic extremists in the southern Philippines ambushed a military convoy Wednesday by planting a landmine that killed three soldiers, the latest outbreak of violence as the government cracks down on the militants.

The military convoy of three vehicles was traveling on the southern island of Jolo to secure a road project when a truck hit the landmine.

Fighters from the Al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group then ambushed the surviving soldiers, according to military spokesman Colonel Restituto Padilla.

Three soldiers were killed while six others were wounded, he said.

A two-hour gunbattle ensued but there were no reports of Abu Sayyaf casualties.

"The Abu Sayyaf are the ones behind it. They struck back against us," he told AFP.

He said the attack was in retaliation for a military offensive launched against the group in their Jolo strongholds last week which killed 24 militants.

"We have had successes but we have also had losses," Padilla said.

Founded in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida network, the Abu Sayyaf gained international notoriety for the worst terror attacks in Philippine history including bombings and kidnapping Christians and foreigners for ransom.

They are believed to be currently holding at least seven hostages, according to the military.

The hefty ransom payments enable the group to fund attacks and replenish their forces from impoverished Muslim communities in southern regions of the largely Catholic Philippines.

The group was also blamed for the worst terror attack in the country, the 2004 firebombing of a ferry off Manila Bay that killed more than 100 people.

Despite receiving training assistance from the United States, the Philippines has struggled to contain the Abu Sayyaf, whose leader last year pledged allegiance to the Islamic State movement.

Earlier, about 45,000 people have fled their homes in the impoverished southern Philippines as the military hunts Islamic militants, including a top terror suspect wanted by the United States, authorities said Wednesday.

Soldiers have killed dozens of members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a rebel group fighting for an independent Muslim homeland in the south, since the operation began last month, the military said.

The offensive, including attacks with artillery and helicopter gunships, has taken place in poor farming areas on Mindanao island, where Muslim rebels have for decades fought for independence.

About 45,000 people living in mostly poor farming communities have fled, fearing an expansion of the violence, said Laisa Alamia, executive secretary of the special Muslim-administered region where the fighting is raging.

She said the displaced had taken refuge with relatives or were huddling in schools, town halls and tents that the government were using as evacuation centers.

"They are cramped. It is raining in the evening and very hot in the day. The farmers have even brought their animals, their cattle with them," Alamia said.

The offensive is aimed at killing or capturing local extremist leader, Abdel Basit Usman, who is on the U.S. government's list of most-wanted terrorists with a $1-million bounty.

Usman escaped a police raid in Mindanao on January 25 in which another man on the U.S. government's list of "most-wanted terrorists", Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, was reported to have been killed.

The BIFF and other rebels killed 44 of the police commandos as the operation backfired, triggering a wave of outrage in the Philippines that has shaken the administration of President Benigno Aquino.

Military spokesman Colonel Restituto Padilla told Agence France Presse on Wednesday the latest offensive against the BIFF would continue.

He said, aside from Usman, the military was hunting four Indonesians and one Arab who had bomb-making expertise.

"It is important to get these foreign terrorists because they are the ones teaching bomb making skills," Padilla told AFP.

The BIFF is a breakaway faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the nation's biggest Muslim rebel group.

The MILF is pursuing a peace pact with the government, in which it would accept autonomy instead of independence.

The BIFF has said it will never compromise on its independence aspirations. It has also has recently vowed support to the Islamic State jihadist group that controls swathes of Iraq and Syria.