Government troops in search of American hostage Jeffery Schilling captured 13 Abu Sayyaf rebels on Saturday after a fierce gun battle in Jolo, Sulu. Reports from the Armed Forces Joint Task Force Janus said that around 6.35 p.m. on Saturday, troops of the Second Scout Ranger Battalion, headed by Maj Marcos, encountered an undetermined number of Abu Sayyaf bandits in Barangay Kabatuan in Talipao town.

By stealth and under cover of darkness, army commandos broke through the guerrillas' outer defences early on Saturday, seized several houses they occupied and captured 13 rebels, wounding one after a gunbattle, southern commander General Gregorio Camiling told reporters. He said a number of rebels escaped, and the government suffered no casualties.

"They were caught flat-footed by our forces," Camiling said. "The president called me personally and said she was happy with the result." In a separate operation, soldiers on Saturday occupied an abandoned Abu Sayyaf base on Basilan island, near Jolo.

In the first encounter in a village of Talipao town on Jolo island several km from the village where Schilling is believed to be held, a fierce 10 minute firefight resulted in the capture of 12 unidentified Abu Sayyaf rebels.

Another rebel, Ambre Adan, was reported wounded although it was unclear whether he was one of those captured in the encounter. Two M16 rifles, two calibre 30 Garand rifles and one M14 rifle were recovered from the rebels. The captured rebels are being interrogated at military headquarters in Sulu, said the military.

This was the first major breakthrough since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo called for the annihilation of Abu Sayyaf rebels still holding hostage Schilling and a Filipino, Roland Ullah. It was also the first clash between soldiers and the Abu Sayyaf since Arroyo on April 2 ordered an all-out offensive against the group operating in the jungles of Jolo, 960 km south of Manila.

The rebels had threatened to behead Schilling last Thursday after Manila rejected their demand for a Saudi Arabian diplomat to negotiate with them. The group later said it had postponed its plan to execute the American to allow a chance for talks. Schilling has been in captivity since August 28 last year while Roland Ullah is the last of 21 mostly foreigners abducted by the bandit group from Sipadan, in Malaysia last April.