Police death toll in southern Philippines clashes rises to 43

Bloody clashes between Filipino police and Islamic rebels in the southern Philippines led to the deaths of 43 policemen over the weekend.Filipino police force officers were deployed to the southern province of Maguindanao to capture Marwan and Abdul Basit Usman, two wanted terrorists belonging to Islamist group Jemaah Islamiyah. Both were bomb experts who allegedly provided training to al Qaeda-linked insurgents in Mindanao.