I've been following this for a few days but delayed posting it - it's just too weird, and I was sorta hoping it would go 'way - but it looks like it's continuing to unfold.

Most particularly, I'm wondering if these really are "Muslim rebels", or well-trained agitators/death squads with a mission that's not apparent yet.

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Saturday August 4 7:33 AM ET

Philippine Rebels Behead More Hostages, Nine Dead

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (Reuters) - Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines have beheaded four more hostages taking the death toll to nine since the Abu Sayyaf militia attacked a Christian village two days ago.

Civilian groups and the army said on Saturday they had recovered four more headless corpses in two villages on the island of Basilan, 560 miles south of Manila.

A total of nine Christian hostages have now been found executed by the Abu Sayyaf since Thursday's raid on Balobo village near the town of Lamitan in which more than 30 people were abducted.

``Everybody is very sad. There should be a non-stop operation,'' Lamitan Mayor Inocente Ramos told reporters.

``I believe there are three groups that attacked the village. I believe they were executed on the same night of the attack on the village,'' the mayor said.

Two villagers managed to escape after the attack on Thursday and nine were set free, the army said.

One of the freed villagers brought back a message from the gunmen that the others would be killed unless a military offensive on the Abu Sayyaf was halted.

Lamitan's mayor said 140 families had now been evacuated from Balobo.

``This is the handiwork of the barbaric Abu Sayyaf group,'' said Colonel Cesar Ramboanga, commander of 102nd Philippine army brigade, who vowed to continue operations against the rebels.

The military engaged the guerrillas in running gunbattles on Saturday, although the terrain often favors the rebels.

Senator Rodolfo Biazon, who witnessed corpses being loaded onto a truck, said people were starting to feel helpless and called for more troops to be sent.

``I am calling on the government to send in more troops to solve this problem as soon as possible before the public lose its confidence in the government,'' Biazon said.

MILITARY DEFIANT

Earlier in the day, the military said they recovered in Limook town another headless corpse believed to be among the villagers kidnapped on Thursday.

Police on Friday recovered four beheaded corpses near the raided village, which is close to a known stronghold of the guerrillas. The dead were identified by family members as among the abducted
villagers.

Provincial police director Superintendent Akmadul Pangambayan said there were also reports that two more bodies had been found in an area dominated by the Abu Sayyaf, although police had not been able to confirm this.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said on Friday the guerrillas could not blackmail her government.

``Probably...because the heat is so strong, the Abu Sayyaf had to do this retaliatory action or diversionary action,'' she said.

Armed Forces Southern Command chief Lieutenant General Gregorio Camiling was also defiant on Saturday.

``This is purely a diversionary tactic of the Abu Sayyaf, but this cannot divert us from our main objective in crushing the group,'' he told reporters.

The self-styled Abu Sayyaf rebels claim to be fighting for an independent Islamic state in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines but their main activity is kidnap for ransom.

The attack came as the two larger Muslim groups in the Philippines signed a unity agreement which could lead to an overall peace deal with the government.

The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed the agreement in Malaysia. The MNLF agreed to a peace deal with the government in the 1980s
and the MILF is in talks with Manila on ending its decades-long insurrection.

The Abu Sayyaf is the smallest of the three groups and is currently holding at least 21 other hostages on Basilan, including a U.S. missionary couple kidnapped in May.

The Philippine military has launched intensive operations to rescue the hostages, but so far to little avail.

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