Philippine troops successfully rescued a couple kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf rebel groups last month after a gun battle in Sulu province.

Soldiers today attacked the Abu Sayyaf group and saved British citizens Allan Hyrons and his wife Wilma in the hills near the town of Parang in Sulu province, Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, commander of the Western Mindanao military district of the Philippines, said. .

"A shotgun battle took place. They left the two because they could not continue to take them along. They were running around in different directions but our army was pursuing," said Mr Sobejana.

Hyron and his wife were not injured in the 10-minute gun battle, nor did the Abu Sayyaf rebel group receive any ransom. A photo released by the military shows the couple in a barracks in Sulu and talking to Filipino military officers. Sobejana said they would undergo medical checks and answer some questions from military officials.

Hyron and her husband were abducted last month at a seaside resort in the province of Zamboanga del Norte. The Philippines military has organized major searches to rescue two people.

The rescue of the Hyron couple came after the Philippine army struck successively on Abu Sayyaf, a rebel group listed as a terrorist by the Philippines and the United States.

Army soldiers on November 22 killed Abu Sayyaf's Talha Jumsah, who connected the militant group with the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) and caused a series of attacks. Suicide in Sulu this year.

Abu Sayyaf emerged in the late 1980s as a branch of the decades-old Islamic separatist movement in the southern Philippines, a country with a large Catholic population. Most of the militants of this group have sworn allegiance to the IS, regularly causing kidnappings, beheadings and looting.

Location of the Sulu province of the Philippines. Graphics: Google Maps.