COTABATO, Jan 27: Philippine helicopter gun ships and planes on Thursday attacked a suspected meeting between leaders of the Al Qaeda-affiliated Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah groups, the military said.

The attack left at least five dead and three wounded on the militant side, said Lt Gen Alberto Braganza, military chief of the southern island of Mindanao, without identifying the casualties.

Among those suspected of being in the area attacked were senior Abu Sayyaf leaders and an Indonesian Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) member, named Dulmatin, who was allegedly behind the deadly 2002 bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

The air strikes were based on intelligence reports the Abu Sayyaf militants were meeting Indonesian members of the JI network along with renegade members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), who had broken a cease fire with the government to attack an army outpost.

Among the Abu Sayyaf leaders believed to have been in the area were its chief Khadaffy Janjalani and senior members Abu Soliman and Isnilon Hapilon, along with Dulmatin "who figured in the Bali bombing", said Gen Braganza.

Regional military spokesman Colonel Franklin Del Prado said the targets were in a group of houses scattered in a forested, marshy area on the outskirts of Datu Piang and Saudi Ampatuan towns.

A helicopter pilot who flew over the area later said at least three houses were completely destroyed in the attack. Del Prado said Dulmatin was accompanied by two other Indonesians identified as Maruan and Mauyha, also supposedly members of the JI's regional militant network.

However the officials would not say how Dulmatin entered the Philippines or what he and the others were doing in the country. The Abu Sayyaf and JI members were meeting an MILF faction that overran a military outpost in the southern town of Mamasapano on Jan 10, leaving about 21 soldiers and rebels dead, Gen Braganza said.

The two MILF commanders, Abdul Rahman Binago and Abdul Wahid Tundok, led their men in attacking the army outpost without the sanction of the front's leadership but the rebels have refused to turn the two commanders over.

Gen Braganza said MG 520 helicopter gun ships and OV-10 attack planes, backed by artillery, were used because ground forces had difficulty entering the marshy area. Some of the helicopters were hit by rebel machinegun fire but returned to base safely, a military report said.

Troops were later airlifted near the site and were proceeding to the target area to assess the effect of the strikes but they have not yet sent in any reports, Col del Prado said.

The Abu Sayyaf group has been linked by both Washington and Manila to the Al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden. The group is also blamed for a deadly ferry fire triggered by a home made bomb in February last year, which killed more than 100 people in the country's worst attack.

The Jemaah Islamiyah group, considered to be the Southeast Asian chapter of the Al Qaeda, has been blamed for the Oct 2002 bombing in Bali, in which more than 200 people were killed.

Last November, the Philippine military launched an air strike near Datu Piang town against a suspected meeting between Janjalani and JI members. Philippine security forces have charged that the JI has members in Mindanao who are sheltered by commanders of the 12,000-strong MILF, which has denied the allegation.

Milf spokesman Eid Kabalu denied its forces were in the marshy area hit by the government. He said the front did not know if the two renegade commanders Tundok and Binago, were there.

CLASH WITH COMMUNISTS: Four communist guerillas were killed and three others captured in a clash with soldiers north of the Philippine capital, the military said on Thursday.

Rebels of the communist New People's Army attacked an army patrol in Victoria town on Wednesday, triggering a gun battle that left four dead, Lieutenant Colonel Buenaventura Pascual said.

Five M-16 rifles were also captured from the guerrillas, Pascual said, adding none of the soldiers was hurt. Pascual said the rebels may have visited leftist strikers who have been picketing a plantation in Tarlac province owned by the family of former Philippine president Corazon Aquino.

The strike, over a dispute by some sugar mill workers, has lasted several months and has been marred by violence in the past such as a violent clash in November that left three strikers dead and at least 16 other people injured. The military has been charging that communist rebels are agitating the strikers. -AFP