Ananova:

Philippines President Joseph Estrada has said all 12 Filipino Christian evangelists held hostage by Muslim rebels have been rescued.

A senior army official has said the group of evangelists had been rescued after a brief firefight with the rebels.

The military was able to pinpoint their location after the first evangelist escaped, he said.

The overall military rescue assault has taken much longer than the military had predicted, and military Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes admitted Monday that he had underestimated the rebels' strength.

But Estrada expressed confidence Monday that all the hostages would be rescued soon.

"I think in one more week we will end this problem," he said.

Reyes said 117 rebels are believed to have been killed so far in the assault, while four government troops have died.

More than 88,000 villagers have fled their homes to escape the fighting, military officials said.

Military leaders have admitted they made a number of mistakes in the assault, originally predicted to take as little as three days. The military expected the Abu Sayyaf would fight back instead of fleeing into the jungle, and did not foresee the amount of popular support it enjoyed on the predominantly Muslim island, they said.

As a result, the military has had difficulty obtaining information from villagers about the location of the guerrillas, they said.

The military estimates the Abu Sayyaf had about 4,000 armed men when the assault began _ up from only 300 when the rebels began a kidnapping spree in March which netted scores of hostages.