Philippine Troops Battle Rebels

A firefight between the Philippine army and rebels, cost eight soldiers and four rebels their lives, on Thursday.

Major General Ricardo Rainier Cruz said that reinforcements were deployed as fighting continued.

Army troops launched the attack on an Abu Sayyaf camp, within hours of it being located.

The army had been looking for the camp, since it launched a raid that killed several farmers in Sumisip, two weeks ago.

Abu Sayyaf, a branch of Al Qaeda, has been linked to many of the most violent and deadly attacks, in the Philippines, over the last couple decades.