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Wednesday, July 13, 2005
5 gunmen, 2 soldiers killed in fighting
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Seven persons were killed in separate fighting in southern Philippines, where security forces were pursuing members of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, officials said Tuesday.
Officials said two soldiers died after a gunman attacked a military outpost Tuesday in Tacurong town in Sultan Kudarat province. The attacker was also killed by pursuing soldiers, said Major Onting Alon, spokesman for the Army's 6th Infantry Division.
"The motive of the attack was still unknown," he said.
Alon said four Abu Sayyaf gunmen were also killed and three soldiers were wounded in fierce fighting in the jungle village of Tamar, Talayan town, in Maguindanao province. He said troops recovered three M-14, one M-16, and a Browning automatic rifle from the slain gunmen.
"Security forces killed four Abu Sayyaf gunmen and recovered their weapons. The operation against the terrorists is going on and security forces are hunting down the Abu Sayyaf," he said.
He said troops, backed by helicopters, were tracking down the terror group headed by Khadaffy Janjalani. Last week, military choppers dropped thousands of leaflets of wanted Abu Sayyaf leaders in Maguindanao and nearby provinces.
The Abu Sayyaf group was implicated in the kidnapping of two Malaysian and Indonesian tugboat crew members in April last year near the southern Philippine island of Taganak off Tawi-Tawi. The seamen Toh Chiu Tiong, 53, Wong Siu Ung, 52, and Indonesian skipper JE Walter Sampel died in captivity, authorities said.
The group was also behind the kidnapping of 21 mostly Asian and European holiday-goers from the Malaysian island resort of Sipadan in April 2000. Many of the hostages later were freed after Libyan and Malaysian negotiators paid an estimated US$11 million ransom.
Washington listed the Abu Sayyaf as a foreign terrorist organization after Manila implicated five of the group's known leaders to the killing of Californian Guillermo Sobero in 2001 and Kansas missionary Martin Burnham in 2002. They were kidnapped in Dos Palmas resort in the central Philippine province of Palawan.
The US offered as much as US$5 million for the capture of Janjalani and other Abu Sayyaf leaders, and Manila also put up a P100-million bounty for their capture dead or alive. (Sun.Star Zamboanga/Sunnex)
(July 13, 2005 issue)
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