MANILA, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Three suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group have been killed in a raid conducted by government security forces in the island province of Basilan of southern Philippine, military and police authorities said.

Police said the raid was conducted before dawn on Friday, four others have been wounded.

A combined team of policemen and soldiers raided the hideout of Hajan Apino alias Abu Omar in the remote village of Cadiis of the Hadji Mohammad Ajul town around 2:20 a.m. local time on Friday.

Apino is allegedly a senior member of the terrorist group with two arrest warrants for committing robbery with multiple homicide and frustrated homicide and double murder in connection with Wednesday's attack in Lamitan, the capital city of Basilan.

Police said the suspects resisted arrest, forcing the government team to fire shots. Those wounded were arrested, police added.

Abu Sayyaf group, which was set up in the early 1990s with money from Al-Qaeda terror group, has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

The group operates in the waters off the west coast of Mindanao island in southern Philippines, mainly in the provinces of the Sulu Archipelago -- namely Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the Zamboanga Peninsula, and Mindanao -- but has also conducted cross-border operations in eastern Malaysia.

The group, estimated to have 400 members, is notorious for carrying out kidnappings-for-ransom, bombings, ambushes of security personnel, public beheadings, assassinations, and extortion. Enditem

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