KIDAPAWAN, Philippines (AP) — More than 100 suspected Muslim rebels stormed a jail in the southern Philippines before dawn Wednesday, allowing 158 inmates to escape in what officials said was the biggest jailbreak in the country.
Six of the inmates were killed in firefights with pursuing police and army troops, while eight others have been caught and were being returned to the facility, said Senior Inspector Xavier Solda, spokesman for the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.
Solda said the heavily armed gunmen emerged from a forest and attacked the North Cotabato District Jail in Kidapawan under the cover of darkness. Kidapawan city in Cotabato Province is about 930 kilometers (580 miles) southeast of the capital Manila.
“To my knowledge, this is the biggest jailbreak in the history” of the bureau, Solda said in a telephone interview.
Acting Provincial Jail Warden Supt. Peter John Bongngat Jr. said one of the about 20 prison guards on duty was killed and an inmate was wounded in an initial gunbattle.
Bongngat and Kidapawan police chief Supt. Leo Ajero said gunfire continued for hours after the attack as army troops and police, some in armored tanks, hunted through the surrounding forests for the escaped inmates and the gunmen who freed them.
Bongngat said the attackers were suspected to include members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and guerrillas who broke away from the main Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has signed a peace deal with the government.
The jail held 1,511 inmates, including Bangsamoro members facing murder charges for a series of bombings in the province, officials said. It was the third attack on the provincial jail facility since 2007.
Local village leader Alexander Austria told The Associated Press by telephone that he and his men captured one escaped man.
He said the gunfire woke his village, which was several kilometers (miles) from the prison, and he immediately posted guards because of worries the attackers and escaped inmates could enter the village.
“We heard the gunfire and we sprang into action to guard our village,” Austria said. “We were afraid the escapees could try to enter our village to hide or take hostages.”
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CNN’s Martin Savidge and Khushbu Shah reported from Charleston. CNN’s Catherine E. Shoichet wrote the story in Atlanta. CNN’s Darran Simon and Ralph Ellis contributed to this report.

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US President-elect Donald Trump has made a fresh assault on America’s intelligence community.
He said on Twitter that an intelligence briefing he was due to receive on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election – which is said to have benefited Mr Trump – had been delayed.
« Perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!  » he wrote.
But US intelligence officials insisted there had been no delay in the briefing schedule.
Several US agencies including the FBI and the CIA believe Russia directed hacks against the Democratic Party and the campaign of its presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, releasing embarrassing information through Wikileaks and other outlets to help Mr Trump win the election.
Trump praises Putin amid hacking row
Trump condemns Russia hacking claims
Russia ‘intervened to promote Trump’
Mr Trump initially dismissed the claims as « ridiculous » but subsequently said he would meet US intelligence chiefs to be « updated on the facts of this situation ».
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said once again on Tuesday that Russia was not the source for the site’s mass leak of emails from the Democratic Party in the run-up to the US presidential election.
In another development, Mr Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson , has agreed he will cut all ties with Exxon Mobil and comply with conflict-of-interest requirements.
Meanwhile, Republicans have ditched a plan to gut the independent body that investigates political misconduct after a backlash.
The lawmakers’ surprise vote to strip the Office of Congressional Ethics of its independence prompted public uproar and a dressing down from Mr Trump on Twitter.
The secretive move, which overshadowed the first day of the 115th Congress, was reversed in an emergency meeting.
The ethics body was set up in 2008 following a slew of scandals that resulted in several House lawmakers being jailed.
Mr Trump made cleaning up corruption in Washington a key theme of his campaign.
Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan had argued unsuccessfully against the rule change, which was adopted on Monday night in a closed-door meeting.
As the news spread, internet searches for « who is my representative » rocketed, according to Google Trends.
House Republicans called an emergency meeting and abruptly voted to undo the change.
Mr Ryan – who was re-elected by fellow lawmakers on Tuesday as House Speaker – had urged his party to seek bipartisan support and to wait to push for the change later.
Mr Trump’s remarks about US intelligence agencies and the ethics committee came on a busy day for the president-elect’s Twitter account.
He also warned North Korea about its nuclear ambitions, attacked Obamacare costs and sparked a row with General Motors over its manufacturing operation in Mexico, which the car firm disputes.

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TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Israeli military court has convicted a soldier of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an incapacitated Palestinian attacker.
The verdict caps a nine-month saga that has deeply divided the country. Defense officials have criticized Sgt. Elor Azaria’s conduct, while large segments of the Israeli public, along with members of the nationalist ruling coalition, have rallied behind him.
Azaria was convicted of fatally shooting a Palestinian involved in the stabbing of a soldier, even though the Palestinian had already been shot and incapacitated by troops.
In delivering her verdict, Col. Maya Heller systematically rejected all of Azaria’s defense arguments, saying “the fact that the man on the ground was a terrorist does not justify a disproportionate response.”
A spokesman for Azaria’s family said the court ignored evidence indicating the soldier was innocent.
Sharon Gal, family spokesman and former lawmaker, told reporters, “It was like the court was detached from the fact that this was the area of an attack. I felt that the court picked up the knife from the ground and stabbed it in the back of all the soldiers.”
The soldier’s defense team said it would appeal the verdict.
Lt. Col. Nadav Weissman, a military prosecutor, said, “The judges decided that it was an unjustified shooting. This is not a happy day for us. We would have preferred that this didn’t happen. But the deed was done, and the offense was severe.”
The prosecutor said the verdict was “important, clear, decisive and speaks for itself.”
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