There was no word on whether the hostages were hurt in the fighting, but they remained in the grip of the Abu Sayyaf militants, police said.
Rebel commander Khabir Malik of the Moro National Liberation Front, which has an autonomy deal with the government, said his group decided to attack the Abu Sayyaf in the rugged mountains of Patikul town in southern Sulu province after negotiations collapsed on the release of several of its foreign hostages, including a Jordanian TV journalist and two European men who have been held since last year.
Abu Sayyaf militants did release two Filipino hostages over the weekend after an unspecified ransom was paid, security officials said, adding the captives were let loose on their own and not turned over to the Moro rebels.
"We had no choice," Malik told The Associated Press by telephone from Patikul. "They told us they won't hand over their hostages to us even if they die."
The Moro rebels battled the Abu Sayyaf with guns and knives at close range yesterday, Malik said, adding his group lost eight men, including one who was beheaded and a few others who were hacked to death.
Military and police officials in Sulu said up to 14 Abu Sayyaf men were killed, citing intelligence.
The fighting subsided today after Abu Sayyaf gunmen split into smaller groups, with a large group seen fleeing from Patikul to an adjacent town. But the clashes could erupt again, Sulu provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Antonio Freyra said.
It was the first major bloody confrontation between the two insurgent groups, which have coexisted for years and at times were suspected of collaborating on kidnappings and backing each other in clashes against government troops in predominantly Muslim Sulu.
Malik said his group had taken the initiative to seek the freedom of the hostages to help the government clean up the image of Sulu, where the Abu Sayyaf has carried out deadly bombings, kidnappings and beheadings, primarily in the early 2000s.
The two Filipinos freed by the Abu Sayyaf, cameraman Ramel Vela and audio technician Roland Letriro, worked for veteran Jordanian journalist Baker Abdulla Atyani. The rebels were also holding two European bird watchers, a Japanese treasure hunter, a Malaysian man and at least one Filipino resident of Sulu, police said.
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