ZAMBOANGA CITY (Zamboanga Journal / 03 Aug) Filipino troops, backed by US military intelligence, continue to assault suspected lairs of Abu Sayyaf militants, whose group is tied to Jemaah Islamiya terror network, in the strife-torn southern island of Jolo, about 950 km from Manila, officials said.
Officials said soldiers were also tracking down Khadaffy Janjalani, the chieftain of the Abu Sayyaf group, and two Jemaah Islamiya leaders Umar Patek and Dulmatin, tagged as behind the deadly 2002 Bali bombings.
"We have reports that the two JI bombers are in Jolo, but we cannot say if they were with the group of Abu Sayyaf terrorists that we are fighting now. It is difficult to say that Patek and Dulmatin are fighting soldiers alongside with the Abu Sayyaf group," Army Col. Antonio Supnet, chief of staff the Southern Command in Zamboanga City , told the Zamboanga Journal.
Patek, an Indonesian explosive expert, was believed to have played a role in the Bali bombing in which more than 200 people were killed. Both Patek and Dulmatin, a Malaysian electronics expert, evaded a massive police hunt in Indonesia after the Bali bombing and fled to Mindanao in the southern Philippines in August 2003 soon after the bombing of the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta.
At least 3 militants were killed and two more wounded in the fighting. Five soldiers were also injured in the clash since Tuesday when security forces attacked terrorist hideouts in at least four hinterland villages in the town of Indanan, said Supnet.
"The military offensive is ongoing and sporadic clashes were reported today in Indanan," Supnet said, but there were no immediate reports of new casualties from both sides.
Indanan is also a known lair of the former rebel group Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and its leaders assured the military that their forces would not provide sanctuary to terrorists. The MNLF signed a peace accord with Manila in 1996 ending more than three decades of hostilities in the south.
Filipino authorities blamed the Abu Sayyaf group for the spate of terror attacks and killings in the region.
The US military is also helping in the anti-terror campaign by providing intelligence to the Philippine military. "Friends in the US military are helping the military by providing us intelligence. They are not involved in combat operation," Supnet said.
Commander Kathy Wright, a spokesperson for the US military, said American soldiers were also providing life-support system for local troops in Jolo island. "We are helping in the medical evacuation of wounded soldiers. The US military is not directly involved in any combat operation in Jolo, but we continue to assist and advice the Philippine military on the fight against terrorism on the request of the Filipino government," she said.
A US EP3 Orion reconnaissance plane was also reported flying over Zamboanga and Jolo on Tuesday, but Wright said the aircraft was only gathering weather data for the Philippine military. "Law abiding people have nothing to fear about the plane. It was just gathering weather data and forecast for the Philippine military," she said in a separate interview.
US soldiers were training Filipino troops in anti-terrorism warfare and involved in many humanitarian missions in the south. A small contingent of American troops is also in Jolo island.
Washington listed the Abu Sayyaf as a foreign terrorist organization and was implicated in the kidnapping of three US citizens in 2001, two of them were killed during captivity.
Major General Gabriel Habacon, chief of the Southern Command, said he ordered the assault on the terrorist groups after the military traced the Abu Sayyaf in Indanan town.
"The Southern Command has already designed an extensive offensive plot for the capture of these elements to prevent them from performing terrorist activities and permanently disperse them in the region. We have been planning and working for months to find and track the terrorist leadership and the time is now," he said.
The US has offered $10 million bounty each for the capture of Janjalani and Dulmatin and another $1 million for Patek.
Dulmatin and two more JI leaders, including Patek, were also reported training Filipino recruits in Mindanao under the protection of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's largest Muslim rebel group which is currently negotiating peace with the Arroyo government, according to Zachary Abuza, one of the leading scholars on Terrorism in Southeast Asia, in an article he wrote for the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation.
"(Dulmatin), he is one of four top JI leaders — including Umar Patek, Zulkifli bin Hir and possibly Abdul Rahman Ayub — who have continued to train members of JI and the Abu Sayyaf Group in Moro Islamic Liberation Front camps in the Philippines."
"His presence has in part explained the ASG's return to terrorism since 2004. He was the target of Philippines Armed Forces bombing raids in the Liguasan Marsh (in Maguindanao province) area in November 2004 and January 2005, where a hard-line member of MILF was believed to have given him sanctuary, said Abuza, who is also a current Associate Professor for Political Science and International Relations at Simmons College in the US.
The MILF on Thursday said Abuza's statement was an old issue, but said it is ready to cooperate with the Philippine authorities and investigate the matter.
"It was an old issue. Provide us the information and we will investigate this allegations; our doors are wide open for the Philippine authorities to see that we have no links with the JI nor the Abu Sayyaf or any terror groups. The MILF is not a terrorist organization and we have repeatedly and publicly denounced terrorism. We are for peace," Eid Kabalu, the MILF spokesman, told the Zamboanga Journal.
The Afghanistan-trained Dulmatin was also said to be raising funds for terror campaign in the Philippines and Indonesia, Abuza said.
Philippine authorities have implicated Dulmatin in the 2003 bombing of the Davao International Airport and Sasa wharf in Davao City in Mindanao.Three of his local Abu Sayyaf contacts -- Pedro Guiamat, Ali Salipada and Norodin Mangalen -- were arrested last year in Maguindanao Province. A bomb hidden in a backpack exploded in March 2003 at the Davao airport terminal, killing 19 people, including a US missionary William Hyde, and wounding more than 145 people.
A second bomb explosion also ripped through a passenger terminal in Sasa wharf that killed and wounded dozens of people.
In 2005, Dulmatin and Umar Patek ordered Abdullah Sonata, a JI operative in Central Java who was arrested in conjunction with the September 4, 2004 Australian Embassy bombing, to dispatch additional JI members to Mindanao for training. He has also called for JI suicide bombers to be sent to the Philippines for operations, Abuza said.
Aside from the JI, the United States also listed the Abu Sayyaf as a foreign terrorist organization. Washington tagged the group for the killing of two kidnapped US citizens in 2002 in the southern Philippines.
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