MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / 01 Feb) – Security forces raided early Thursday a hideout of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group in Manila’s suburb and killed a suspected bomber and captured four others, including their leader, officials said.
Officials said soldiers and policemen stormed the hideout in the village of Santa Ana in Taytay district at around 3 a.m. and clashed with gunmen, killing Mohamad Utto.
The fighting, which lasted for about 10 minutes, left Abu Sayyaf members, Abdulla Alimudin and Badruddin Anggoto wounded. Another militant, Jukarnen Utto, was also captured along with their leader, Sanjali Utto,said Marine Major General Mohammad Dolorfino.
“We have planned this operation for a long time and it paid off. We have captured Sanjali Utto and foiled his plan to bomb civilian targets around Manila,” Dolorfino told the Mindanao Examiner. He did not elaborate.
Utto is the leader of an Abu Sayyaf unit called UTG or Urban Terrorist Group, whose chieftain, Binang Sali, had been killed in a clash with troops in the southern Philippines last month.
Dolorfino said security forces have recovered automatic weapons, fragmentation grenades, improvised explosive devices, C4 explosives and equipment used in manufacturing homemade bombs from the Abu Sayyaf hideout.
“This operation is part of the government’s anti-terror campaign and there is an ongoing operation to track down other members of the Abu Sayyaf hiding in Manila,” he said.
Utto, he said, was also smuggling weapons to the Abu Sayyaf in the southern Philippines.
“Sanjali Utto is one of the Abu Sayyaf’s arms suppliers and he is currently under interrogation,” the general said.
He said Utto’s group is operating in Manila. “This group is very dangerous,” he said.
The Abu Sayyaf previously bombed civilian targets around the Philippine capital the past years that left scores of people dead and wounded. In February 2004, the Abu Sayyaf also bombed a ferry off Manila Bay, killing more than 100 passengers.
The 10,000 ton SuperFerry 14, carrying about 900 people, was heading for Bacolod City in the central Philippines when the Abu Sayyaf detonated the bomb, hidden inside a television set.
Last month, Filipino troops, guided by U.S. military intelligence, raided an Abu Sayyaf hideout on Mount Daho in the southern island of Jolo and also killed a senior militant leader, Jainal Antel Sali, Jr. alias Abu Solaiman.
In September, the Abu Sayyaf chieftain, Khadaffy Janjalani, was also killed by soldiers in fierce battle in Jolo island. His remains were recovered in December from a shallow grave in Jolo’s Patikul town.
Aside from the Abu Sayyaf, troops were also pursuing two Jemaah Islamiya militants, Dulmatin and Umar Patek, blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 mostly foreign tourists, including 88 Australians.
The Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya are both in the U.S. list of international terrorist organizations, blamed for the kidnappings of foreigners and spate of bombings in the Philippines and Indonesia.
Southern Philippines military commander Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo said the Abu Sayyaf is coddling Dulmatin and Patek. (Mindanao Examiner)
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