More than 30 elite Filipino police commandos were killed during an attempt to capture a terror suspect, the Associated Press reported. The raid resulted in a "misencounter" with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a Muslim militant group that won semi-autonomy last year after four decades of fighting, Mamasapano's mayor told the AP.

Mohagher Iqbal, chief negotiator for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), told local outlet Minda News that a team from the Philippine National Police Special Action Force descended upon the in the village of Tukanalipao, in Mamasapano town—an area which is controlled by MILF and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF)—without communicating with local authorities.

The MILF signed a peace deal with the Philippines government last March, brokered by the Malaysian government, after nearly 45 years of armed conflict that left some 120,000 people dead and 2 million displaced.

A BIFF spokesperson told Minda News that the gunfight started when police forces descended upon the house of a MILF commander named Ustadz Manan.

An army spokesperson told Reuters that police had intended to arrest Zulkifli bin Hir, who is believed to be a member of terror group Jemaah Islamiyah's central command and has a $5 million bounty on his head, according to the National Counterterrorism Center's website.

[Photo credit: AP Images]