Cops, Sayyaf Man Killed In Zamboanga Shootout

Chief Inspector Francisco Clavecillas, Zamboanga City port police commander, gestures as he tells reporters how a suspected Abu Sayyaf militant (below) is killed in a firefight Friday 14 July 2006. Two policemen are also killed and a port security guard is wounded in the gun battle, he says. (Zamboanga Journal)

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Zamboanga Journal / 14 Jul) Two maritime policemen and a suspected Abu Sayyaf militant were killed Friday in a firefight inside the busy port of Zambonga City in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Officials said a port security guard was also wounded in the gun battle that erupted around 6.30 a.m. after policemen stopped the man for body inspection after his back pack yielded a magazine for .45-caliber pistol.

"The man quickly pulled a pistol from under his shirt and shot the two policemen and on our security guard. The assailant was later killed," Chief Inspector Francisco Clavecillas, the port police commander, told the Zamboanga Journal.

He said aside from the magazine, they also recovered a Qur'an with Arabic text in the man's back pack.

"The man was well trained in handling gun. He was quick and really trained to kill. He was a determined assassin and we suspect that he was a member of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group," Clavecillas said, adding, the man did not have identification cards. "Investigations are still going on to determine his real identity," he said.

Clavecillas said he ordered more security guards and policemen deployed in the port to thwart possible retaliation and to secure the safety of travelers. "We have deployed additional forces to secure the port and the travelers," he said.

International cargo and passenger ships from Manila pass in Zamboanga City en route to southern Philippines and vice versa. Zamboanga has one of the busiest ports in the country, but the city was previously bombed by the Abu Sayyaf and had been used by the group in the past as hideout and springboard for terror attacks in the restive region.

Washington listed the Abu Sayyaf as a foreign terrorist organization and offered as much as $5 million bounty for its top leaders, including Khadaffy Janjalani, believed to be the al-Qaeda contact in the Philippines.