Philippine police kill 7 suspected drug dealers

Philippine authorities have killed at least seven alleged drug traffickers and arrested more than a dozen others in a raid in a southern city.

Benjamin Magalong, head of the national police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, says police and Drug Enforcement Agency agents were met by gunfire when they raided hideouts of suspected drug traffickers in southern Davao city early today.

He says seven suspects died in the ensuing firefight and more than a dozen were arrested.

Magalong says authorities recovered assorted firearms, components for home-made bombs and an undetermined amount of crystal methamphetamine.

In metropolitan Manila last month, authorities seized about USD 32.2 million worth of illegal drugs in operations in which four Filipinos and four Canadians with suspected links to a Mexican cartel were arrested without violence.