Manila: A total of 64 people, including five soldiers, were killed and more than 25,000 residents were displaced as the military continued attacking two Al Qaida-linked radicals in southern Philippines, sources said.

Thirty-six members of the 20-year-old Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) have been killed in Buhanginan Village, Patikul, Sulu (southernmost part of Mindanao), after soldiers began tracking down ASG Commanders Isnilon Hapilon, Furuji Indama, Radulan Sahiron, and Hajan Sawadjaan, since last February, Armed Forces spokesman Brig, Gen. Joselito Kakilala told Gulf News.

Also killed were Lt. Emerson Semera, Lt. James Magbanua, and Sgt. James Daez of 1st Scout Ranger Batallion in Pansul village, Patikul town, Sulu, on Wednesday afternoon (March 4), raising to five the total number of soldiers killed in the government’s campaign in Sulu, said Kakilala.

They were ambushed after a bomb exploded and damaged one of the cars in their convoy that was headed to their headquarters in Panglayahan village, said Kakilala. Two Army soldiers were killed in Tanum village, Patikul in late February.

Meanwhile, 23 Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), the armed wing of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM), were killed after the government began tracking down BIFF commander Kagi Karialan whose followers took over a dozen of villages in Pikit town, North Cotabato Province and Pagalungan town, Maguindanao since February, said Kakilala.

A total of 25,552 residents were placed at government-run evacuation centres, said North Cotabato Governor Emmylou Mendoza-Talino and Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu.

“Prolonged displacement causes untold suffering,” warned Pascal Mauchle, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross which has been extending relief goods to displaced families.

Commander Maj. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan of the 6th Infantry Batallion also extended until Sunday the military campaign in central Mindanao.

The 37-year-old Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which forged a pro-autonomy peace settlement with the Philippine government in 2014, allowed government soldiers to track down BIFF members in MILF-controlled territories in central Mindanao.

The BIFF-BIFM became a faction of the MILF in 2008.