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ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine forces launched attacks on three southern islands in an effort to wipe out the guerrillas who held a U.S. couple hostage for more than a year, military officers said Sunday.

The assaults, which started Saturday after one of the Americans and a Philippine captive died in a rescue attempt, are aimed at the top three commanders of the Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf, said Philippine Maj. Gen. Ernesto Carolina.

Martin Burnham, 42, and Ediborah Yap, 45, died in a shootout Friday when government troops ambushed their captors in jungles of the main southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Burnham's wife Gracia was shot through the thigh but rescued.

"We're now operating with greater

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine forces launched attacks on three southern islands in an effort to wipe out the guerrillas who held a U.S. couple hostage for more than a year, military officers said Sunday.

The assaults, which started Saturday after one of the Americans and a Philippine captive died in a rescue attempt, are aimed at the top three commanders of the Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf, said Philippine Maj. Gen. Ernesto Carolina.

Martin Burnham, 42, and Ediborah Yap, 45, died in a shootout Friday when government troops ambushed their captors in jungles of the main southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Burnham's wife Gracia was shot through the thigh but rescued.

"We're now operating with greater intensity. We will not let them get away with this," said Carolina, head of southern Philippine forces. He said no clashes were reported as of Sunday morning.

Carolina said 1,500 and 1,800 soldiers would arrive in the next three days to back troops already hunting the Abu Sayyaf on the islands of Jolo, Basilan and the province of Zamboanga del Norte on Mindanao.

"We will have to finish this war because terrorism is a scourge on the Earth," President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said Sunday.

All three mountainous, jungle-covered areas stand in a 60-mile stretch of the Sulu Sea in the southwestern Philippines.

It wasn't clear how many troops were already involved in the operations, but thousands of soldiers have been in the area for months - since the military launched its offensive after the Abu Sayyaf seized the Burnhams and several other hostages in May 2001.

Carolina said soldiers on Mindanao were hunting Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya, who fled into dense jungle with about 40 men after the army attacked them during Friday's rescue mission.

(AP) Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, right, extends her condolences to the family of slain...

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He said the rebels are more vulnerable without the hostages, who could be used as human shields. But he said the army is reluctant to bomb them for fear of hitting pursuing troops.

Other forces were hunting for Khaddafy Janjalani, a brooding zealot leader with an unknown number of supporters on Jolo island, and commander Isnilon Hapilon, on Basilan.

"If we get the three, the others will fall," Carolina said.

The Abu Sayyaf forces on Basilan and in Zamboanga del Norte are thought to number less than 100, down from more than 1,000 a year ago. Several hundred more fighters may still inhabit Jolo island, the military says.

Janjalani, Hapilon and Sabaya are among five men Philippine guerrillas actively sought by the U.S. government for kidnapping and killing U.S. citizens.