Three suspected Muslim rebels were killed while three others were captured on Monday in separate operations by government troops on a southern Philippine island, the military said. Lieutenant Colonel Ariel Caculitan, a marine spokesman, said soldiers were preparing for a civic action programme in Patikul town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometers south of Manila, when they encountered the rebels, the German News Agency "DPA" reported. Caculitan said one marine was wounded in the fighting but was already in stable condition and being treated in a hospital on Jolo.
