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Friday, April 09, 2004
Soldiers kill six Sayyafs, including leader
ZAMBOANGA -- Government troops killed a leader of the Abu Sayyaf and five other rebels in Basilan on Thursday, as the bandit group, flushed out of their island bases by US military-trained soldiers, tries to bring its armed campaign to the country's capital.
In Thursday's clash on the outskirts of Isabela City, soldiers killed Hamsiraji Sali, who had a US-set bounty of five million dollars on his head, and his five companions, local Army commander Colonel Raymundo Ferrer said.
Elite Scout Rangers encountered the rebels at about noon, sparking the gunbattle that also left four soldiers wounded, he said.
Sali is believed to have taken part in numerous abductions and killings including the kidnapping of three Americans and a group of Filipinos from a resort in 2001. One of the Americans was later beheaded while a second was killed in a rescue operation that recovered the third hostage.
THE US and Philippine governments have linked the Abu Sayyaf to the al-Qaeda network of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.
The military says about 400 Abu Sayyaf fighters are still hiding in the jungles of Mindanao but in recent weeks, six suspected Abu Sayyaf members were arrested in Manila.
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Lucero said the campaign on Jolo and Basilan had displaced the remaining Abu Sayyaf leaders. "There seems to be an exodus of commanders in these areas," he added.
Manila cell
Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita suggested the rebels were on the run and plotted a Manila bombing campaign to draw away some of their military pursuers.
Late last month, police uncovered a Manila cell of the bandit group with the arrest of six Islamic militants and the seizure of more than 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of explosives.
President Arroyo said the crackdown had averted what she described as "Madrid-level" terrorist attacks, referring to the March 11 commuter rail bombings in Spain that claimed nearly 200 lives.
Ermita said authorities "can never be sure there is no one left" of the terror group's Manila cell.
"Maybe they may wish to divert our attention to Metropolitan Manila or urban centers so the pursuit in (the south) will be a little relaxed."
However, the latest arrests have uncovered a new twist: three of them are recent Muslim converts.
One of the detained suspects, identified as Walter Villanueva, had worked as broadcaster for the armed forces radio in the past.
The converts were in Manila because "they will not be easily suspected to be terrorists", Ermita said.
Ferry bomber
One of the suspects, Redendo Dellosa, claimed he had planted a bomb hidden in a television set in a passenger ferry that caught fire on Manila Bay on February 27, killing an estimated 100 people.
"We cannot conclude anything yet," national police chief Hermogenes Ebdane said, adding that Dellosa would be made to testify at a marine inquiry into the shipping disaster.
Police revealed Tuesday that the Manila unit's targets included shopping malls, television stations and trains.
Khadaffy Janjalani, the top Abu Sayyaf leader, owned up to the plot in an interview with a national daily last week, and pledged more attacks.
"The queue is long, we will not run out of bombers," he added.
"This is our global contribution to fulfill our obligation in defending Islam," another Abu Sayyaf leader, Jainal Antel Sali who is also known as Abu Soliman, told the paper in a separate interview.
The government has since doubled the bounty on Janjalani to P10 million.
Armed campaign
Set up by Filipinos who fought against the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan, the Abu Sayyaf has waged a decade-long armed campaign in Mindanao, the hotbed of three decades of Muslim separatism.
In 2000 and 2001, the Abu Sayyaf hit international headlines by abducting Western tourists and missionaries from the country and nearby Malaysia, beheading some hostages and ransoming off others for millions of dollars.
Officials say the group initially received funding from al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, but ties to the group blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States became tenuous after 1995.
Once an American tourist was murdered after being taken hostage in 2001, the Pentagon sent Special Forces advisers to train Filipino combat troops on the southern island of Basilan.
One other American hostage was killed and a third rescued in 2002, when Filipino troops aided by US intelligence input tracked down and killed senior Abu Sayyaf leader Aldam Tilao alias Abu Sabaya, one of several high-level Abu Sayyaf leaders to be killed or captured since then.
There have been no high-profile abductions since the end of the operation by the US Special Forces on Basilan.
Two Filipino Army brigades are based in Basilan and Jolo islands to hunt down the Abu Sayyaf.
The government says it has killed 298 Abu Sayyaf gunmen, captured 111 others while 973 others surrendered. Military chief of staff General Narciso Abaya estimates there are about 400 Abu Sayyaf members still active. (AFP)
(April 9, 2004 issue)
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