Hooded rebels beheaded four Christian villagers on Thursday night, at a remote village on a southern Philippines island after kidnapping 31 people, the army said yesterday. Abu Sayyaf guerrillas on the island of Basilan, 560 miles south of Manila, said that the remaining hostages would be killed unless a military offensive against Abu Sayyaf was halted, army chief Lieutenant General Jose Calimlim told reporters.

The militants hacked another resident and left him for dead, then burned down a school before fleeing, said Superinten-dent Akmadul Pangambayan, the local police chief.

The victim, Antonio de los Santos, was taken to a government hospital in this southern city with serious injuries, officials said. Radio stations earlier reported from Lamitan that he was killed.

Eleven of the hostages managed to escape. One of them had been hacked and badly wounded, and was brought to a military hospital in nearby Zamboanga, a southern port city. Earlier, two of them were identified as Budjie Ramos and Ian Rebollos, 17.

Rebollos said he was freed, but the Abu Sayyaf men threatened to hunt him down and kill him later. The abductors claimed they staged the kidnapping because of orders they received from a local official in Basilan.

The attackers, allegedly led by Ghalib Andang, also known as Commander Robot, dragged farmers out of their homes and ransacked the houses. Last month, Ilocos Sur Governor Luis Singson said Andang sent out surrender feelers because he wanted to return into the fold of the law.

Andang was responsible for the kidnapping of 40 mostly foreign hostages in Malaysia and in Jolo from April to August last year. Except for one, all of Andang's hostages were released after alleged payment of an estimated $ 20 million by non-government organisations in Libya, Malaysia, and Europe.

Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani is still holding 21 of the 39 hostages who were taken separately from Palawan, southwestern Philippines on May 27, in Basilan's Lamitan and Lantawan towns on June 2 and 11 respectively.

Meanwhile, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who has vowed to crush the Abu Sayyaf, said the military's campaign appeared to be making the guerrillas desperate.

"Precisely because the heat is so strong the Abu Sayyaf had to do this retaliatory action or diversionary action," Arroyo said in response to a question at her regular weekly news conference in Manila. "That's how war is. War is never one-sided."