Police search two detained men when they were coming out from Tanjung Labian, a village adjacent to Kampung Tanduo, March 6, 2013

UPDATED: At least 13 suspected Philippine militants were killed by Malaysian security forces after reports of bombing, mortar attacks and troops rounding up Lahad Datu area. From the weeks-long of stand-off with the rebels, it is reported that a total of 40 men were killed, including Malaysian policemen. Security is combing through plantations that some of the rebels have escaped into.

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Sultan Jamalul Kiram said his followers -- some 400 people including 20 gunmen -- were resolute in staying despite being cornered by security forces, with the Kuala Lumpur government insisting the group return to the Philippines. "Why should we leave our own home? In fact they (the Malaysians) are paying rent (to us)," he told reporters in Manila. "Our followers will stay in (the Sabah town of) Lahad Datu. Nobody will be sent to the Philippines. Sabah is our home," he said.

The sultan did not directly threaten violence but said "there will be no turning back for us". Malaysian officials have said that many of the group have weapons, but Kiram insisted his followers made the trip unarmed.

"If they have arms, they were already in Sabah," the sultan said. The southern Philippine-based Islamic sultanate once controlled parts of Borneo, including the site of the stand-off, and its heirs have been receiving a nominal yearly compensation package from Malaysia under a long-standing agreement for possession of Sabah.

Kiram said he was prompted to send the group to Sabah after the sultanate was left out of a framework agreement sealed in October between Manila and Filipino Muslim rebels, which paves the way for an autonomous area in the southern Philippines that is home to the Muslim minority of the largely-Christian nation.

The sultanate's spokesman, Abraham Idjirani, later said the sultan's brother Raja Muda Abimuddin Kiram, who led the group to Sabah, had told him via telephone that the party was preparing to stay.

"The objective is to reside now in that place permanently, considering the sultanate owns Sabah by rights of sovereignty," he told AFP.

Click next to see photos of Malaysian special forces on duty in Lahad Datu.

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