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Saturday, November 26, 2005
Military bombs Sayyaf hideouts in Sulu mountain
By Al Jacinto
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Sporadic fighting continued Friday in the southern island of Jolo in Sulu, where security forces are battling members of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, officials said.
Troops were pursuing the militants in Mount Tumatangis in Indanan town where the Abu Sayyaf has split into smaller groups, said Air Force Major Gamal Hayudini, chief of information of the Southern Command.
"The fighting is now concentrated in Mount Tumatangis where the terrorists are holed out," he said, adding, that a soldier was killed on Thursday and that eight more were wounded in fierce clashes in the mountain.
Troops clashed also on Wednesday with some 150 militants, backed by Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) forces, in Mount Tumatangis. Tumatangis is sacred to many Muslims in Sulu, but the vast mountain area was being used as a step-board for terror attacks by the Abu Sayyaf, blamed by the military for the series of bombings and killings in Jolo. The area is also a known stronghold of renegade members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), whose group, under Nur Misuari, signed a peace accord with Manila in September 1996.
Hayudini said the military pounded the Abu Sayyaf positions in the mountain the past two days, using howitzer and two pairs of OV-10 bombers and S-211 trainer jets fitted with rockets. He said many gunmen were believed killed in the fighting, but security forces have not recovered bodies of those slain in two weeks of fierce battles.
Military and community intelligence reports suggested that as many as three- dozen gunmen were killed since November 11 in Jolo, about 950 kilometers south of Manila.
Officials put the death toll at six soldiers and 33 wounded, resulting from the armed clashes. Those wounded have been airlifted to a military hospital in Zamboanga City.
The military said Abu Sayyaf and MNLF forces were attacking troops the past days and that the number of gunmen has swelled to 700 from about 100 the last week.
It said MNLF leaders Khaid Ajibun and Haber Malik were aiding the Abu Sayyaf, and that latest military intelligence reports said another MNLF leader in Basilan island, Bashiri Jailani, has reinforced rebel forces in Jolo.
Malik has denied the allegations and said troops attacked their positions, in the guise of pursuing the Abu Sayyaf group, and that rebels were only defending themselves. Officials said the target of the military offensive were the Abu Sayyaf leaders in Jolo -- Albader Parad and Umbra Jumdail Gumbahali and Radulan Sahiron, who are all included in the terror lists of both Manila and Washington.
Hostilities erupted after the Abu Sayyaf attacked a military post November 11 in Indanan and the fighting spread to neighboring towns. Many Abu Sayyaf militants were former members of the MNLF, and the military said they are still loyal to Misuari and in many instances fought alongside with forces identified with the ex-rebel leader.
Social workers said the latest hostilities forced more than 2,500 people to flee their homes in Jolo for fear that they would be caught in the crossfire or held hostage by gunmen. (Al Jacinto/Sunnex)
(November 26, 2005 issue)
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