Philippines sends more troops to hunt down Islamic militants

MANILA (AFP) - Hundreds more marines were deployed to the southern Philippines to hunt for Islamic militants who killed their comrades as they were searching for a kidnapped Italian priest, the military said Friday.

The 500-strong battalion was dispatched to Basilan island after President Gloria Arroyo ordered the military "hunt down and arrest" militants blamed for killing 14 marines in an ambush on Wednesday.

"One marine battalion will proceed to Basilan to beef up the forces of First Marine Brigade in the area," marine spokesman Ariel Caculitan told reporters.

The marines are also tasked with widening the search for Father Giancarlo Bossi, abducted from his parish on June 10 and thought to be held by militants, Caculitan said.

The slain marines had been investigating a tip-off Bossi was being held in the area when they were ambushed near Tipo-Tipo town.

Ten of the killed marines were beheaded.

The military has accused the Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic extremist group known to have ties with Al-Qaeda, and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a Muslim separatist guerrilla group, of joining forces to launch the attack.

Caculitan said troops had been pulled from nearby Jolo island, where the military has been bogged down hunting for members of the Jemaah Islamiyah extremist network and like-minded Abu Sayyaf group.

He said the reinforcement was "meant to physically locate and rescue Father Bossi when the opportunity materialises."

The 12,000-strong MILF, which has a three year-old truce in place as it negotiates peace with the government, says its forces attacked the marines after they entered MILF territory without advance notice.

The group has denied any involvement in the beheadings, and says four of its members were also killed in the clash.

The 57-year-old Bossi, of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), was seized by unknown heavily armed men near his parish church in the town of Payao on Mindanao island.

The government had earlier said Bossi's kidnappers could either be Abu Sayyaf men or renegade members of the MILF. The MILF has denied any involvement in the abduction and initially helped in the hunt for his captors.