Sixty-five rebels have been killed since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered a crackdown against the militant Abu Sayyaf which is holding 21 hostages in the southern Philippines. Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan, spokesman for the armed forces, said twenty-eight soldiers have also lost their lives in encounters with Abu Sayyaf fighters.

Seventeen soldiers and 27 Abu Sayyaf rebels were killed in Basilan, while 11 soldiers and 38 bandits were killed in in Sulu. An Abu Sayyaf suspect, William Lim Manihas, was killed when he tried to snatch a pistol from his military escort in Basilan on Sunday.

Manihas and his 17 arrested companions were being taken to army headquarters in Busbus village when he suddenly made a grab for a soldier's gun and aimed at the troops. "It was sudden, but the soldiers reacted quickly," said Col Fredesvindo Covarrubias, chief of the military's civil office.

Seventeen of his companions were released for lack of evidence. But 11 others were handed over to the police, and four to military investigators, said Sulu Police chief Candido Casimiro. "Some are giving us vital information, but the others are hostile," he added.

In Zamboanga, suspected Abu Sayyaf member Mukaram Isarina was captured in the coastal village of Arena Blanco, 20 km east of Zamboanga City on Tuesday. The military's anti-terrorist group Task Force Zamboanga Army Col Alexander Yano said another Abu Sayyaf member from Kalingalang Caluang, Sulu, was also captured.

Arrested businessmen are suspected of being Abu Sayyaf financiers, and policemen were found to be providing the hostage takers with weapons. Meanwhile, government soldiers recovered the body of a guerrilla in village Danit, Lamitan town, on Monday, said army spokesman.

Dried leaves, grass and branches of trees covered the corpse, clad in a black uniform. He was part of an Abu Sayyaf unit that clashed with the military in the area, said Servando.
Campaign

There are a number of Moro soldiers in the Armed Forces of the Philippines, but they are one with the government's campaign against Abu Sayyaf, said Adan.

President Arroyo has declared all-out war against Abu Sayyaf which abducted three Americans and 17 Filipinos from a resort in Palawan, in May. They kidnapped four others from Lamitan, Basilan, on June 2, and 15 more from Lantawan, Basilan, nine days later.

Fourteen were earlier released and four others beheaded, but the military has not accounted for American Guillermo Sobero as one of the dead, despite an Abu Sayyaf claim that he was beheaded on June 12.

In the meantime, the government has intensified security at the jail in Zamboanga, following reports that Abu Sayyaf plans to rescue 28 suspects who were taken there for arraignment on charges of kidnapping for ransom.

The government's human rights commission branch in the southern Philippines is studying accusations that the military and the police have violated the human rights of civilians and suspects, said Jose Manuel Mamauag, Commission on Human Rights director for Western Mindanao.