Police in the Philippines killed three people including a suspected Muslim militant in a raid today linked to a bomb attack at the country’s Congress.

A politician killed in a bomb blast outside the Philippines congress may have been targeted by al-Qaida after double crossing them, it emerged today.

A congressman killed in a bomb blast outside the Philippine legislature was a former member of an al-Qaida-linked militant group who switched sides to support a US-backed offensive against them, police said today.

Muslim rebels who kidnapped around 24 hostages, including three Americans, have dumped the beheaded bodies of two of their captives near a main road outside the capital of a remote island in the southern Philippines.

Authorities were today anxiously awaiting contact with Muslim extremists as the rebels’ threatened to behead three American captives.