ZAMBOANGA CITY, 10 October 2006 — Fighting flared up yesterday in the southern island of Jolo as government troops caught up with a large number of Al-Qaeda-linked militants in the jungles, the military said yesterday.

Officials said six soldiers were wounded and a still undetermined number of gunmen were killed and wounded in the weekend fighting in Mount Tunggol in Patikul town.

“Six of our soldiers are wounded and we still don’t know how many terrorists were killed and wounded in the clash,” a regional army spokesman, Maj. Eugenio Batara, told the Arab News yesterday.

Batara described the one-hour battle as “ferocious” and said army troops clashed with the group of local Abu Sayyaf leader Radullan Sahiron, wanted by authorities for his role in the kidnappings of foreigners and terrorism in the restive region.

The clash was the latest in a US-backed offensive that began Aug. 1 in the island, where the troops have been hunting fleeing Abu Sayyaf guerrillas and Indonesian militants, the military’s Western Mindanao Command said.

Batara said troops on Friday found empty boxes of mortar rounds and assault rifle ammunition, empty gauze pad boxes and used disposable syringes in an abandoned camp in Patikul’s jungles, indicating the militants have been incurring battle casualties.

About 6,000 troops have been waging the offensive against the militants, particularly Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khaddafy Janjalani and Indonesian militants Dulmatin and Umar Patek, who are suspected plotters of the 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali, Indonesia, that killed 202 people.

In Manila, Istiada Binti Oemar Sovie, the detained wife of Dulmatin, has told investigators her husband and at least six other Jemaah Islamiyah operatives are in the Philippines, training local insurgents how to make bombs, officials said yesterday.

Istiada was captured by troops in Jolo last week and flown to Manila yesterday. She met Justice Secretary Gonzales, who discussed if it was possible for her to testify against militants charged for a string of deadly attacks, officials said.

Dulmatin’s wife said that she sneaked by boat to the southern Philippine island of Tawi-Tawi from Malaysia in August 2003. (With input from agencies)