May 3, 2000, The Associated Press / Seattle Times, 4 hostages found dead after Philippines clash, by Oliver Teves,

May 3, 2000, The Associated Press / Seattle Times, 4 hostages found dead after Philippines clash, by Oliver Teves, 

ISABELA, Philippines - Four hostages were found dead yesterday - shot execution-style and some mutilated - after Muslim rebels holding 27 captives stumbled across Philippine troops by a river crossing and both sides opened fire.

Many of the hostages were children seized from a school. Fifteen children and their teachers were rescued after the gunfight in Basilan province, but military officials said others were taken by the fleeing Abu Sayyaf rebels.

A radio station reported today that two hostages escaped from a separate band of the rebels holding 21 hostages on neighboring Jolo island.

That group reported yesterday that two of the captives, taken from a Malaysian diving resort on Easter Sunday, had died during a clash with troops surrounding their compound.

As the hostage standoffs degenerated into gunfights, the region's other major rebel group claimed responsibility for a series of bombings that left at least four dead and dozens wounded in several towns. It was the worst recent outbreak of violence linked to the rebel groups fighting for a separate Islamic state in the Philippines' impoverished Mindanao region, home of the country's Muslim minority.

The attacks are the most serious religious violence to shake this country since a peace deal was signed between separatists and the government in 1996.

The 27 Basilan hostages, mostly children, were among about 50 people seized by the rebels on March 20 for use as human shields. The rebels later released some captives, but they claimed to have beheaded two male teachers two weeks ago.

That claim led the military to launch an assault on their stronghold.

Troops overran the area in fierce fighting over the weekend but failed to find any of the captives.

The rescued hostages said they had been taken from the camp Saturday and forced to walk each night through forest trails.

"When we left the camp there were already explosions around it," said Criselda Selvano, a sixth-grader. "They moved us from place to place during the night. Sometimes we slept under the trees, and when it rained we got wet."

The Abu Sayyaf is the smaller of two separatist Muslim rebel groups in the region. A larger group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, claimed responsibility for the explosion of a bomb that exploded in the General Santos fishing port, killing two people and seriously injuring at least 20, Mayor Adelbert Antonino said.

Almost simultaneously, a bomb inside a taxi exploded in front of a municipal building, killing one woman, and a bomb outside a second city building killed one man and injured 10, he said. Police and military officials also reported explosions in Cotabato, Zamboanga del Sur and Maguindanao.