Philippine police shot dead four suspected Muslim guerrillas on Tuesday and said they had foiled another rebel plot to attack the southern Christian city of General Santos.
The guerrillas were riding in two speedboats and trying to land on the eastern coast of General Santos before dawn when police confronted them, triggering a 30-minute clash.
Hours earlier, a crude bomb exploded on a deserted main street of Cotabato City, 160 km (100 miles) northwest of General Santos, startling residents out of their sleep but causing no casualties.
Regional police chief Colonel Bartolome Baluyot said guerrillas believed to be allied with the extremist Abu Sayyaf group were suspected of being involved in both incidents.
The United States has accused the Abu Sayyaf of links to Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network, prime suspects in the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
US special forces are holding counter-terrorism exercises on Basilan island 350 km (215 miles) west of General Santos to help train local soldiers fighting the group.
Suspected Muslim militants bombed a business district and a residential area in General Santos on April 21, killing 15 people and wounding scores. A man who said he represented the Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Baluyot said two boats carrying about 15 suspected bombers were approaching General Santos at 4 a.m. when police fired warning shots, and the suspects countered with grenades.
"Four of the men were thrown out of one boat after our men shot them but the others escaped to the sea," Baluyot told Reuters.
He said the raiders were believed to belong to the same group responsible for last week's bombings.
A letter found on the body of one of the slain men was addressed to a local hotel and demanded 500,000 pesos (US$9,800) from its owners.
"Your business establishment, like other income-generating establishments, is operating in our Homeland and yet...it is the Philippine Colonial Government who is benefited by your business," said the letter, a copy of which was released to reporters.
The letter was signed by a man who identified himself as a member of the Abu Sayyaf special operations group.
"The group has been responsible (for) the series of bombings nationwide, abductions of hard-headed businessmen and assassination of uncooperative local officials and political personalities in order to finance the various programs of the Movement," it said.
Baluyot said the group appeared to be composed of breakaway members of other Muslim separatist groups and "appear to have a tactical alliance with the Abu Sayyaf".
Abu Sayyaf gunmen have been holding a US missionary couple and a Philippine nurse hostage for almost a year on Basilan island.
The rebels claim to fight for an independent Islamic state in the south of the predominantly Christian country but their main activity is kidnap for ransom.
(China Daily April 30, 2002)
