MANILA, April 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Two suspected members of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group were killed as Philippine security forces pounded a known rebel territory in a marshy area in southern Philippines, the military said Friday.

    Armed Forces Southern Command spokesperson Col. Domingo Tutaan Jr. said that the clash erupted earlier this morning when a Philippine Air Force plane dropped four bombs at the southwest portion of the Butilan marsh in Maguindanao province.

    Operating troops, however, could not retrieve the bodies of the slain rebels as they were being subjected to sniper fire, Tutaan said.

    Tutaan said the Abu Sayyaf rebels hiding in the marshy area were led by chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani and Commanders Isnilon Hapilon and Abu Solaiman.

    "They were positively sighted in the clash site," Tutaan said.

    Butilan marsh has been a frequent site of heavy government offensive against local terrorists aided by operatives of the southeast Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

    In last November, government forces pounded the area and shortly after, pronounced that Janjalani was believed killed in the operation.

    However, a captured JI bomb instructor, an Indonesian national identified as Rohmay alias Zaki, later told reporters that Janjalani survived the air strike that time.

    In February this year, another air strike was conducted in the region with military authorities claiming to have killed two JI operatives involved in the October 2002 Bali bombing.   Enditem