Civilians trapped in Philippine gunfire

LAMITAN (PHILIPPINES), JUNE 2. Scores of civilians were trapped as Philippine helicopter gunships fired rockets and troops rained gunfire on a hospital and a church taken over by Muslim rebels in the south today, officials said.

But at least four Filipinos kidnapped by the guerillas from an island resort a week ago managed to escape in the confusion.

There was no confirmed news on the whereabouts of the other 16 people kidnapped at the time, who include three Americans, but they are also believed to be trapped in the hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.

Residents said more than a dozen people were killed, including many civilians caught in the crossfire, but the military said they could only confirm four soldiers and one rebel dead.

Some 50 Abu Sayyaf rebels, fleeing from troops along with their hostages, rampaged through Lamitan, 900 km south of Manila, before dawn and took over a church and the town's main hospital.

They claimed they had captured an additional 200 people, including doctors, patients and a priest. However, a man who escaped from the hospital said he estimated there were about 100 trapped there.

Troops directed mortars and steady gunfire at the rebel positions and then sent in helicopter gunships to blast guerilla snipers perched in the belfry of the St. Peters church and on the roof of the adjoining hospital. Machine-gun bursts from armoured troop carriers also peppered rebel positions.

But by evening, fighting tapered off and the military said there was no return fire from the rebels.

`The Abu Sayyaf is not responding to gunfire, but we cannot assume they are running out of ammunition,' said spokesman, Col. Horacio Lapinid.``We have the upper hand. We are optimistic we will be able to rescue all the hostages safely.''

Three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a hotel security guard kidnapped last Sunday managed to escape along with some of those captured in Lamitan earlier in the day.

``One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away,'' said Joey Candido, who was taken captive in the hospital. ``I saw two Americans inside hugging each other in fright.'' Col. Lapinid told reporters in nearby Zamboanga city, the headquarters of the southern command, that four soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting. Another spokesman said the body of an Abu Sayyaf gunman was also recovered. A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group would execute hostages if the military did not pull back.

``We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad,'' spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. ``Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages.''

- Reuters

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