Three Abu Sayyaf men were killed and around 10 others and 16 soldiers were wounded in a firefight in Patikul town in Sulu in southern Philippines on Tuesday afternoon.

Maj Filemon Tan, spokesman of the Western Mindanao Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said the firefight broke out around 2:20 pm in Sitio Bud Duwa in barangay Pansul during a security operation.

Tan said soldiers from the Army's 32nd Infantry Battalion clashed with the terrorists, numbering around 200 men, for one and a half hours until the enemy "scampered towards several direction."

Tan said three of Abu Sayyaf men were killed and 10 others were injured based on information gathered by the military.

Tan said the 16 injured soldiers were brought to a trauma hospital in Camp Teodulfo Bautista in Jolo town, also in Sulu.

Formed in the early 1990s, the Abu Sayyaf is a radical offshoot of a Muslim separatist insurgency in the south of the mainly catholic Philippines.

The U.S. and the Philippines have both listed the Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization for carrying out kidnappings, beheadings and bombings.

The Abu Sayyaf have killed two Canadians they seized from a Philippine yachting resort last September because ransom deadlines were not met. They are still holding a Norwegian and a Philippine woman abducted from the same resort.
Source;xINHUA