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Saturday, November 20, 2004
3 suspected Abu Sayyaf members killed (1:00 p.m.)
COTABATO -- At least three suspected members of a Muslim extremist group were killed in a military air strike on one of their alleged hideouts, an army commander said Saturday.
Military bombers pounded the suspected hide-out of the al-Qaida-linked groups Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah in the southern province of Maguindanao on Friday.
Maj. Gen. Raul Relano, commander of the 6th Infantry Division, said an intelligence report indicated that 10 Abu Sayyaf and two Jemaah Islamiyah operatives were meeting in two houses, which were "pulverized" during the attack.
Relano said three bodies of suspected Abu Sayyaf members were recovered in the area on Saturday.
He said there was no immediate word on the fate of the two Indonesian members of Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been blamed for deadly terror attacks across Southeast Asia.
The government side suffered no casualties, Relano said.
About 1,000 residents of a nearby village fled to avoid the crossfire, he said.
Meanwhile, the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) claimed Friday's operation violated a year-old cease-fire between the MILF and the government, and injured one of the front's fighters.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said that the area attacked was one of the front's camps, and that the military violated the truce by conducting the air strike without giving prior notice to a joint cease-fire committee. An MILF guerrilla was injured, Kabalu said.
He said the committee received a letter from the military informing it about the operation only about an hour after the attack began.
"We have a common desire to fight and eliminate criminality, but there is a way to do this," he said.
He said the rebels have filed a protest with the joint cease-fire committee and with an international cease-fire monitoring team headed by Malaysian military officers.
However, Kabalu said the attack would not affect plans to resume formal peace talks brokered by Malaysia.(AP)
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