Malaysian air force begins raid Malaysian air force planes began bombarding armed insurgents in the eastern state of Sabah to end a standoff with a Muslim clan that invaded the area from the Philippines last month. "This is to soften the ground before troops move in," Tengku Sariffuddin Tengku Ahmad, a spokesman for Prime Minister Najib Razak, said in a phone interview with Bloomberg, confirming the assault by seven battalions began about 7am local time. As Malaysia sent hundreds of soldiers to the region on Tuesday, it emerged the incursion was more sophisticated than Malaysian authorities at first believed. And in the Philippines, President Benigno Aquino implicated former president Gloria Arroyo in the invasion by followers of Jamalul Kiram, a Filipino who asserts he is the sultan of Sulu. Hours after the assault began Malaysia said its forces had sustained no casualties but did not release any information about the Filipino gunmen who were targeted in an area where there were houses and palm oil plantations. "On the enemy's side we have to wait because the operation is ongoing," Malaysian Home Affairs Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said. But in Manila relatives of the group who have been in touch with the gunmen by phone said they had survived the bombardment. "They are safe, they are intact," said Abraham Idirani, a spokesman for the group. Supporters of the group took to cyberspace, manipulating Google search listings and hacking into websites to show messages backing their historical claim to the area. The website of Stamford College in Malaysia was hacked and a message included: "The time has come to claim what is truly ours ... Sabah is owned by the Philippines." A Wikipedia page on Sabah carried a message calling Malaysia's rule of the territory "illegitimate." Mr Aquino said that "certain members of the past administration" assisted Mr Kiram, who ran for a Senate seat in 2007 elections for Dr Arroyo's party. Mr Aquino called on the group to surrender and said they would face charges. "There are those who conspired to bring us to this situation," Mr Aquino said. A spokeswoman for Dr Arroyo, Elena Horn, did not return calls. Evidence has emerged that the arrival of up to 200 intruders claiming to be the "royal army" of the sultan of Sulu involved using elderly men and women as decoys on a flotilla of boats that arrived in Lahad Datu district, in a remote part of Sabah, three weeks ago. Carrying M-16 automatic rifles and explosives and wearing army fatigues, the men showed combat experience, Malaysian army officers have told journalists.