Al Qaeda-linked militants in police uniforms set off bombs and fired at civilians on Tuesday in violence that left 15 people dead on Basilan island in the Philippines, officials said.
Philippine troops killed seven Abu Sayyaf militants who the army believed were training with a notorious Malaysian bomb expert in an amphibious pre-dawn raid on Sunday on the island of Siasi.
In an attack led by a top commander of the Abu Sayyaf militant group on Saturday, insurgents killed 10 people in the southern Philippine island of Basilan, according to security officials.
The Philippine military said on Monday that its killing of an Abu Sayyaf leader had inflicted a major blow on the al Qaeda-linked group. The military said it shot dead six militants on Jolo island on Sunday, including commander Albader Parad.
Heavy fighting between Abu Sayyaf militants and Philippine troops in the restive southern island of Basilan has killed at least 23 soldiers and more than 20 rebel fighters, a military official announced Thursday.
FRANCE 24's reporters defied a ban on entering the island of Jolo, in the south of the Philippines, where Islamist group Abu Sayyaf has been multiplying abductions of foreigners. As they discovered, the tension there is palpable.
Army troops clashed with Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants who were holding a sick Italian Red Cross worker hostage in the southern Philippines, military sources said. Police believe Eugenio Vagni, 62, may have been abandoned by his captors.
Abu Sayyaf 
