ZAMBOANGA (Philippines), Aug 18: 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 rebel group Abu Sayyaf suffered about 30 wounded or dead but a military official in Basilan said as many as 42 members of the group had been killed.

An air force 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 gun battle 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.

“The offensive is continuing,” he told reporters in Zamboanga City.

He said two Marines and two Abu Sayyaf commanders were confirmed dead but that there would be more casualties on both sides.

“The armed forces will press the fight,” said Bacarro.

The media blackout on Basilan was imposed amid a military build-up in response to the death of 14 Marines in a July 10 ambush. Ten Marines were beheaded.

That attack was blamed on the Abu Sayyaf and members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a group which is negotiating peace with the government.—AFP