MANILA, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Six Abu Sayyaf terrorists have been killed and eight soldiers wounded in a clash in the southern Philippines, a Philippine military spokesman said on Thursday.

Major Arvin Encinas, the spokesman of the Philippine military's Western Mindanao Command, said the clash broke out around 6 p.m. local time on Wednesday in a remote village in Patikul town in Sulu province of the southern Philippines.

Encinas said the bandits fled after a 30-minute firefight. The military claimed more terrorists were wounded in the clash.

He said the Abu Sayyaf terrorists that clashed with the troops on Wednesday were part of the terrorist group that attacked the troops also in Patikul town on Friday last week that killed 12 soldiers and wounded 13 others.

Lieutenant General Cirilito Sobejana, the Philippine military's Western Mindanao Command commanding general, said troops are hunting down the fleeing terrorists.

Abu Sayyaf Group is considered the smallest but the most violent of the extremist groups in the southern Philippines. The group, which has an estimated 400 fighters, is active in the impoverished archipelagic provinces of Sulu and Basilan.

The group is responsible for the series of kidnappings, deadly bombings, ambushes of security personnel, public beheadings, assassinations, and extortion in the Mindanao region. Enditem

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