Troops overrun Abu Sayyaf camp

ISABELA CITY -- Government troops have overran a bomb-making and training camp of al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf bandits in the hinterlands of Basilan province, the military reported Saturday.

The camp known as Hill 850 and located in the village of Baiwas, Sumisip town fell into the hands of the troops last Tuesday, said Rear Admiral Alexander Pama, chief of Naval Forces Western Mindanao and Task Force Trillium.

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He said three Abu Sayyaf bandits were killed, while 12 others were wounded in the encounter. The wounded terrorists were retrieved by their comrades who were able to flee.

Seven soldiers were also wounded as the troops pushed deeper into the Abu Sayyaf camp starting Thursday of last week until the camp's eventual fall last Tuesday.

Pama said the troops were injured in bomb explosions fashioned out as landmines, also causing the delay of the soldiers’ movement from advancing as fast as they planned.

Brigadier General Eugenio Clemen, 1st Marine Brigade chief, said the fallen camp could accommodate as many as 100 people and fortified with improvised bombs as booby traps.

Clemen on Saturday presented to Pama some of the explosives the troops retrieved from the fallen training and bomb-making camp in the town of Sumisip.

Among the materials presented to Pama by Clemen are training and indoctrination manuals, bomb-making manual, explosive power, dry and wet cell batteries, blasting caps, concrete nails, rifle grenades and hand grenades, empty shells of M-16 Armalite ammunitions, list of contact numbers, subscriber identification module (SIM) cards, and a handcuff.

Clemen said the rest of the recovered improvised bombs were “detonated on site,” citing it is dangerous to transport explosives.

The Abu Sayyaf bandits' training and bomb-making camp in Sumisip town was the second captured by the government forces in Basilan.

The first was in Sitio Kurellem in the village of Silangkum, Tipo-Tipo town that was overran by the government in August of last year.

Pama said Kair Mundos, an Abu Sayyaf bandit trained in bomb-making by Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militants, is reportedly the one training the bandits on fabricating improvised bombs.

Pama said Mundos was able to escape during the fall of the Abu Sayyaf camp in Tipo-Tipo, but there were no reports of his presence in the fallen camp in Sumisip.

He said the troops are still scouring the entire area of Hill 850 to ensure that the place is cleared of improvised bombs fashioned out as landmines.

As of Saturday, the operation continues to prevent the Abu Sayyaf bandits from establishing another training and bomb-making camp in Basilan, said Pama.

“We will not allow them to settle longer in one place so that they will not be able to produce graduates on bomb-making training,” he said.

The Abu Sayyaf has been fighting for years to create an Islamic state in the predominantly Christian nation. It had at least 391 fighters as of December, down from 400 a year earlier due to battle casualties, according to a new military report.

The US has blacklisted it as a terrorist organization because of deadly bombings, kidnappings and attacks targeting civilians, including Americans.

Last month, government forces killed Abu Sayyaf commander Albader Parad, a young, Sulu-based militant who has been accused of beheadings and high-profile kidnappings, including of three Red Cross workers from Switzerland, Italy and the Philippines. The three were freed last year, reportedly after payment of a large ransom. (Bong Garcia/Sunnex)