Army Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro said Special Forces soldiers clashed with about 60 Abu Sayyaf militants on Mt. Daho in Talipao town. One militant was killed, but two soldiers were also wounded in the fighting that lasted more than three hours. Troops captured the hideout, he said.
“One terrorist was killed and two of our soldiers are wounded in the fighting. The operation is still going on against the terrorists,” Bacarro told the Mindanao Examiner.
He said a senior Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Solaiman was believed wounded in the fighting. Troops also recovered assorted materials used in manufacturing crude bombs, including blasting caps from the hideout.
Bacarro said soldiers found at least 17 bunkers around the hideout, heavily camouflaged by thick trees.
Last week, soldiers also killed a leader of the Abu Sayyaf, Binang Sali, after they raided his hideout in the town of Patikul. Sali was the leader of an Abu Sayyaf unit called UTG or urban terrorist group behind the spate of bombings and killings of soldiers and policemen in the southern Philippines.
President Gloria Arroyo, who was in Jolo earlier this month, has ordered the military to intensify the hunt for the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya militants, Dulmatin and Umar Patek, hiding on the island.
Both Dulmatin and Patek were behind the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 mostly foreigners.
Last month, troops dug up the alleged remains of Abu Sayyaf chieftain, Khadaffy Janjalani, in the hinterlands of Patikul town. Janjalani was believed killed in gun battle with security forces in September and had been buried in a shallow grave until two captured Abu Sayyaf militants led troops to his graveyard.
US forces were helping the Philippine military defeat terrorism on Jolo island. American troops were providing intelligence and training to Filipino troops and were actively involved in humanitarian missions in remote Muslim villages to win the hearts and minds of the locals. (Mindanao Examiner)
No comments:
Post a Comment