Troops kill 5 Abu Sayaffs in Basilan

November 19, 2007  --  Got something to say?
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Philippine TroopsZAMBOANGA CITY - Government soldiers killed five Abu Sayyaf militants after storming early this month a hideout of the al-Qaeda-linked group in the island of Basilan, officials said.

Marines swooped on a rebel stronghold near the town of Akbar on Basilan island at dawn Monday, killing a senior member of the group, Marine battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Leonard Teodoro said.

Raiding troops clashed with 10 bandits for 10 minutes, resulting in the death of Commander Abdul Karim Jamjali,” he said.
Jamjali is believed to be a right-hand man of Abu Sabaya, previously one of the core leaders of the Abu Sayyaf, who was killed in a sea battle with troops in 2002.

But a few days later, eight Army soldiers were wounded following an encounter with the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf in the southern island province of Sulu, a spokesman for the Philippine Army said.

The 15th Infantry Battalions Bravo Company was on combat patrol in lower Talipao village, Talipao town at around 4 p.m. Nov. 6, when they engaged some 20 bandits in a 30-minute firefight, said Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Torres Jr.
The wounded were brought to the Camp Asturias hospital in the provincial capital of Jolo, and were set to be airlifted to the Camp Navarro hospital at the Western Mindanao Command headquarters in Zamboanga City.

We believe that the Abu Sayyaf suffered many casualties in the encounter,” Torres told reporters.
Sabaya earlier led an Abu Sayyaf unit that launched kidnappings in Palawan and neighboring Malaysia in 2000 and 2001, taking dozens of foreign and local hostages, including three Americans. Two of the Americans were later killed during a rescue attempt.

The troops are still pursuing several more who managed to escape during the fighting,” said Major Eugene Batara, a regional army spokesman.

He said troops recovered an M-16 automatic rifle from the slain militant. There were no reports of military casualties, he said.

In the past four days troops killed four other Abu Sayyaf militants elsewhere in Basilan in two separate assaults, the military said.

The Abu Sayyaf, which means bearer of the sword, initially was fighting for the Muslim homeland after Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, founded the group in the late 1980s.

But the group, mostly made up of former Moro National Liberation front rebels, resorted to banditry and terrorism after Janjalani was killed in a firefight with policemen in Basilan Island in 1989.

Washington listed the group as a foreign terrorist organization after the Abu Sayyaf abducted a US citizen, Guillermo Sobero, and beheaded him in 2001. The group was also linked in many kidnappings of foreigners, including three US nationals; one of them was later shot during a rescue operation in Zamboanga del Norte province.

President Gloria Arroyo launched a major offensive against the Abu Sayyaf after the group allegedly beheaded 10 of 14 Marines killed in a July ambush in Basilan in one of the militarys biggest losses on the ground in recent years.


Posted by News Team | Filed Under Articles/Stories 

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