Militants kill 14 Philippine marines, behead 10

FE Team | Published: July 12, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

BASILAN, (Philippines), July 11 (AFP): Islamic militants killed 14 Philippine marines searching for a kidnapped Italian priest during a gunbattle, and later beheaded 10 of them, marine spokesman Ariel Caculitan said Wednesday.
"All 10 marines earlier reported missing have been found dead," Lieutenant Colonel Caculitan told reporters.
"All were beheaded," he added.
The military had earlier put the death toll at eight.
Nine other troops were injured while six remained missing after the eight-hour clash Tuesday near Tipo-Tipo town on Basilan island, a known hideout for militants from Abu Sayyaf and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
The troops had been dispatched to the area to check reports that Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi, 57, had been sighted with his captors there, said Marine spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ariel Caculitan.
Caculitan said the troops however ran into about 300 armed men composed of MILF rebels backed by Abu Sayyaf militants, triggering the firefight.
The Abu Sayyaf is an Al Qaeda-linked group of self-styled Islamic fighters blamed for the country's worst terrorist attacks, while the 12,000-strong MILF is the country's main separatist group now engaged in peace talks with Manila.
Caculitan said the fate of the missing Marines remained unknown.
"They may be alive, they may be dead. They remain to be accounted for," he said.
The headless bodies of the four soldiers were recovered early Wednesday by provincial authorities in Basilan and they have been turned over to the military, the Marines said.
Bossi, of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), was seized by heavily armed men near his parish church in the Zamboanga peninsula on June 10.
The government had earlier said his kidnappers could either be Abu Sayyaf men or renegade members of the MILF. The MILF has denied any involvement in the abduction and initially helped in the hunt for Bossi's captors. MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu Wednesday said the Marines had entered an identified MILF area near Tipo-Tipo, triggering the battle.
He denied that Abu Sayyaf militants were engaged in the clash, stressing that the MILF had long cut links to the group, which is known for mutilating its victims.
"The firefight was touched off because they entered our area without first coordinating with the MILF leadership as agreed upon in the peace talks," Kabalu told AFP by phone from his base in the southern Philippines.
"This is their fault because they intruded into our territory and our forces were alarmed and had to defend their positions," he said.
The provocation, he said, was a clear violation of a 2003 truce and would be brought up to a joint monitoring committee.
"The MILF is not involved in the Bossi kidnapping. This we say loud and clear," Kabalu said.