Sixteen troops and dozens of Muslim militants were killed on Saturday in clashes between government forces and Al Qaeda-linked rebels on the southern island of Basilan, the military said.Nine soldiers were also wounded in the fighting that broke out in the jungle when Marines launched an attack on a rebel camp, said military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Bartolome Bacarro. Bacarro said that the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf suffered about 30 wounded or dead but a military official in Basilan said as many as 42 members of the extremist group had been killed.
An airforce MG-520 helicopter gunship, which was sent to back up the troops, crashed in the waters off Basilan, killing the pilot but the co-pilot was rescued by a navy boat, air force chief Lieutenant General Horacio Tolentino said. Tolentino said the helicopter crashed after suffering from unexplained vibrations but asserted that "it was not fired upon." "It was not hit," by enemy fire, he said. Earlier, a military source said the helicopter went down after the pilot was shot by the Abu Sayyaf.
Details of Saturday's clashes remained sketchy because of a media blackout imposed by the military on Basilan, but sources said the gunbattle on the outskirts of the town of Unkaya Pukan turned into close-quarters combat. "The enemy suffered a lot of casualties. We are still trying to get the exact number but their casualties are heavy", regional military spokesman Major Eugene Batara said.