Philippine police end prison siege, kill 22

Manila - Philippine police shot dead 22 prisoners as they stormed a Manila jail on Tuesday to end a 24-hour stand-off with a group of Islamic militant suspects holed up in the building.

Six police officers were wounded and three leaders of the Abu Sayyaf rebel group accused of murder and kidnapping were among those killed, Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes said.

"The crisis is over," he told reporters. "The operation is terminated."

Monday's prison uprising, the latest in a series of security lapses in jails involving Islamic militants, was another blow to the government's anti-terrorism credentials.

Despite years of training and on the ground advice by U.S. special forces, the government has failed to wipe out the small Abu Sayyaf group, which claimed responsibility for a deadly ferry bombing last year and a series of bomb attacks last month.

Police said they regained control of the prison building about an hour after starting the assault, in which troops fired tear gas as teams of police commandos scaled the walls of the four-storey detention center.

More than 400 prisoners, including 129 suspected Islamic militants, were being held in the building.

Police said that a core of about 10 Abu Sayyaf members had carried out the uprising, in which the prisoners snatched a gun and shot dead three guards.

"The terrorists got what was coming to them," Ignacio Bunye, spokesman for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (news - web sites), said in a statement. "The crisis team gave them all chances to peacefully surrender."

Asked to explain why so many prisoners had been killed, Reyes told a news conference that it had been difficult for police to determine which prisoners were involved in the uprising.

"They will not raise their hands and say 'We are Abu Sayyaf'," he said.

The government said at first it had agreed to the rebels' demands, including speeding up long-delayed trials, but the talks broke down on Monday night when the militants demanded food and refused to give up their weapons.

Police said after the assault that they had recovered eight guns from inside the prison.

The Philippine legal system is notoriously slow, hampered by red tape and a lack of judges. The prisoners complained that some of them had been detained for up to four years without trial.

In the first major conviction of Abu Sayyaf rebels, a court found guilty and sentenced to death last year 17 militants for the 2001 kidnapping of four people from a hospital in southern Basilan island.

Reyes said Alhamser Limbong, alias "Kosovo," Ghalib Andang, alias "Commander Robot," and Najdmi Sabdula, alias "Commander Global," were among the Abu Sayyaf leaders killed on Tuesday.

Police said earlier that the uprising appeared to have been led by Limbong, who was accused of beheading an American hostage after a mass kidnapping from a Philippine beach resort in 2001.

Limbong was also charged with carrying out an Abu Sayyaf bomb attack on a ferry near Manila last year that killed at least 116 people.

The one-legged Andang and Sabdula were accused of leading the kidnapping of 21 people from Malaysia's Sipadan island in 2000.

Monday's uprising came 11 months after a mass escape from a prison on southern Basilan Island. About 50 prisoners, including Abu Sayyaf members, overpowered their armed guards.

The United States sent hundreds of military advisers and trainers to the southern Philippines after the September 11 attacks with the aim of crushing the al Qaeda-linked group.

Security analysts say the group has split into several factions, with some seeking to link up with other militant groups such as Southeast Asia's Jemaah Islamiah terror network. -- Reuters

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