Wednesday, April 05, 2006
3 killed in Sayyaf clash in Zambo isle
By Al Jacinto
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Security forces killed a top Abu Sayyaf commander and his brother in a clash on an island off the southern port city of Zamboanga, officials said Tuesday.
The fighting also left a government militia dead on Sacol island, about 14 kilometers east of Zamboanga City, on Monday afternoon, said Army Colonel Edgardo Gidaya, commander of a local anti-terror task force.
He said Romi Akilan and his brother Tatta were killed in a running gun battle and that troops were searching for other Abu Sayyaf militants believed hiding on the island.
"Romi Akilan is a top Abu Sayyaf commander operating in Basilan island and had about 60 followers under him. Now he's dead and we are tracking down other members of his group," Gidaya said.
He said Muslim villagers tipped off a government patrol about the presence of Akilan's group on the island. "Civilians played a big role in this operation. Muslim villagers secretly provided us information about the presence of terrorists and we neutralized them," Gidaya said.
Gidaya said troops recovered automatic weapons from the slain terrorists, tagged as behind the spate of attacks on civilians on the island, home to thousands of ethnic Muslims.
It was not immediately known if the Akilan brothers were involved in the series of bombings and kidnappings in the southern Philippines, but Gidaya said the slain leader was included in the military's order of battle.
Sacol, one of the largest islands in the Zamboanga Peninsula, is home to six fishing villages -- Bolimompong, Busay, Landang Gua, Landang Laum, Pasilmanta and Tambac, and scene of previous fighting between Abu Sayyaf and government forces. The island was previously used by militants tied to al-Qaeda as hideout and springboard for terror attacks.
Last year, security forces on Sacol island captured an Abu Sayyaf militant, Toting Hano, who was part of a group that kidnapped US citizens Jeffrey Craig Shilling on Jolo island in 2000 and Guillermo Sobero and missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham from the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan province in 2001.
Sobero was beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf in June 2001 on Basilan island, while Martin Burnham was shot and killed the next year during a US-led military rescue operation in Zamboanga del Norte province. Burnham's wife Gracia was rescued by Filipino army rangers, but also had been shot and wounded by her abductors.
Washington offered as much as $5 million bounty for the capture of known Abu Sayyaf leaders, including its chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani, who is believed to be the local contact of the al-Qaeda terror network of Osama bin Laden. The US government has paid thousands of dollars in rewards for the arrest and killing of many Abu Sayyaf leaders since 2002. (Sun.Star Zamboanga/Sunnex)
(April 5, 2006 issue)
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