ZAMBOANGA CITY?A leader of an Islamic gang holding three Red Cross volunteers hostage was wounded in a clash with troops in Jolo, Monday, the military said.

Abu Sayyaf leader Albader Parad sustained gunshot wounds but managed to evade capture after a firefight with troops, the military said.

There was no immediate news on the fate of the three hostages?Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba, Italian Eugenio Vagni and Swiss Andreas Notter.

The Abu Sayyaf seized the three while on a humanitarian mission in Jolo, an impoverished Muslim-dominated island and a known stronghold of the Al Qaida-linked group.

?We received an intelligence report on the ground that Albader Parad was wounded,? military spokesman Brig. Gen. Gaudencio Rosales told reporters.

Rosales said Parad and his group traded fire with troops on the fringes of a four-square-kilometer area of dense jungle near Indanan town, where the rebels are believed to be holding the hostages.

It was not immediately clear how the fighting was triggered, but Rosales said the hostages were not seen at the time.

Their last contact with their colleagues and family was on March 11, when they said they were together in captivity although they were enduring hardship.

The Philippine government and Red Cross have ruled out paying a ransom to the Abu Sayyaf, which has received funding from Osama bin Laden?s Al Qaida network.

The local press has reported that the Abu Sayyaf has demanded over $1 million in exchange for the captives, although this could not be independently verified.

The government has imposed a news blackout on efforts by a local group of negotiators, making it difficult to get accurate information.

But abductions blamed on the Abu Sayyaf, or ?bearers of the sword,? have in the past involved huge ransom payments.

The group gained international notoriety for a string of high-profile kidnappings since 2000, as well as for carrying out deadly attacks. It is on the US government?s list of foreign terrorist organizations and is blamed for the deaths of two US hostages seized from a Philippine resort in 2001. AFP