Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Friday vowed to get justice for two marines beheaded in a brutal knife attack by Islamist militants who killed five other soldiers.
Abu Sayyaf extremists killed seven marines, severing the heads of two of them and wounded 27 others in a major clash on the remote southern island of Jolo on Thursday, according to an updated toll put out by the armed forces.
"In this encounter, seven of our troops fell in the midst of operations, and some of their remains were mutilated by the terrorists," the president said in a written statement.
"I condemn these atrocities that are meant to put pressure on the peace process -- to derail our efforts to counteract the causes of banditry, rebellion, and terrorism."
Aquino said he planned to attend a wake for the dead marines and pledged to their relatives that those responsible would be tracked down and arrested.
"Mark my words: to those of you who perpetrated this atrocity, know that you are now number one on my radar. It might take some time, but make no mistake about it: you will be brought to justice to answer for your crimes."
The regional military spokesman there, Lieutenant-Colonel Randolf Cabangbang, said 30 militants were slain in the clash, but gave no indication as to how the military determined the Abu Sayyaf death toll.
Abu Sayyaf, a small gang of self-styled Islamist militants founded in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, is blamed for the country's worst terrorist attacks.
They include beheading a US tourist kidnapped in 2001 and many other Filipino hostages, along with the bombing of a passenger ferry in Manila Bay in 2004 that killed more than 100 people.
