Thirteen assailants and two soldiers were killed when a little-known Islamic militant group attacked a military outpost in the lawless southern Philippines on Sunday, the army said. About 50 men attacked the Marine outpost on the strife-torn island of Jolo before dawn but the troops fought back, driving them off, said regional military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Cabangbang.
He said two soldiers were killed in the gun battle, and the military had recovered 13 of the assailants' bodies along with seven of their firearms. Cabangbang identified the attackers as members of a group known as the "Awiiyah" or "Awliyah", which he described as a "radical" organisation with links to the feared Abu Sayyaf.
He said the group was composed of teenagers and young men, and acted as an "auxiliary" to the Abu Sayyaf, which was founded with the help of the Al-Qaeda network in the 1990s and is listed by the United States as a terrorist group.
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