The Philippine military has killed scores of Muslim rebels this week in a sweep of the southern island of Mindanao, an army spokesman said. “The latest count we have is 122 enemy killed,” division commander Major Generoso Senga told Reuters news agency. The rebels dispute this figure. The army is pursuing members of a notorious kidnap gang, whom it says are being harboured by Muslim rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Fighting continued on Thursday when a group of rebels attacked the village of Bual near the town of Tulunan. According to the army, the rebels withdrew when troops appeared, and escaped with eight male villagers as hostages. But Jay Directo, a journalist in Mindanao, told the BBC’s East Asia Today that the villagers denied any hostages had been taken, although they said they were briefly used as human shields whilst the rebels escaped. Full Story