MANILA, Philippines -- Elite Marine and Army troops overran the main camp of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiyah in the southern island of Jolo on Wednesday, after an overnight assault by commando units, the commander in the area said.

The assault in sitio (sub-village) Candinamon in the jungles of Indanan town "preempted" possible strikes by the extremists, said Brigadier General Juancho Sabban, chief of the Armed Forces' counter-terrorism unit Task Force Comet.

Sabban said a "bomb-making facility" was discovered in the camp, where Abu Sayyaf leader Radullan Sahiron, and JI bomb expert Umar Patek, a suspect in the 2002 Bali bombings, were reportedly hiding, Sabban told reporters.

The extremists suffered an unconfirmed number of casualties, while there were no casualties on the government side, the official said.

"We launched a surgical attack on the camp of the Abu Sayyaf and the



JI, it is their main camp. According to our information, Sahiron and Umar Patek were there," he said.

"They were planning something big. This is a preemptive strike," Sabban said.

After midnight on Wednesday, troops fired 105-millimeter Howitzer and mortar rounds on the extremists' camp, and was followed by a ground assault by troops from the Marines' Force Reconnaissance and Special Operations units, and the Army Scout Rangers and Light Reaction Company, Sabban said.

The government forces, numbering around 300, outnumbered some 200 foes, that were allegedly supported by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Sabban said.

Sabban said the MNLF fired mortar rounds at government troops, but stopped when told that the soldiers were after the Abu Sayyaf and the JI.

The extremists' camp was far from the camp of MNLF commander Ajibon, but the separatist rebels thought that the military were after them, Sabban said.

The fighting ended at around 7 a.m. Wednesday, when the bandits withdrew and the troops overran the camp, Sabban said.

The Abu Sayyaf is a small gang of Islamic militants that once received funding from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

US-backed offensives against the militants, plus arrests and surrenders have reduced the Abu Sayyaf's strength to about 300 armed men from more than 1,000 during its heyday in 2000, according to the military.

The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for the worst terror attacks in the Philippines, including a 2004 ferry bombing that left over 100 dead.

JI meanwhile has been blamed for deadly bomb attacks in Indonesia, and security experts say its militants have been monitored in the past two years training in camps with Abu Sayyaf rebels on Jolo.

Two of JI's top bomb experts, Dulmatin and Umar Patek, are believed to be somewhere in the south of the Philippines.

The military initially reported Dulmatin was killed in a clash early this year, but Indonesian authorities have said DNA tests on the remains proved inconclusive.

The US government has offered up to $10 million for Dulmatin and one million for Patek for their roles in the 2002 night club bombings in Indonesia's Bali that killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.