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Saturday, August 05, 2006
2 soldiers wounded in Sulu sporadic clashes
By Al Jacinto
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Two government soldiers were wounded in sporadic clashes with Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern island of Jolo, where security forces are pursuing leaders of the terrorist group, blamed for the spate of attacks in the strife-torn region, officials said Friday.
Officials said a still undetermined number of militants were either killed or wounded, but there were no signs that any of the top Abu Sayyaf leaders were slain.
Troops were also tracking down two Jemaah Islamiya bombers -- Umar Patek and Dulmatin -- reportedly hiding on the island, about 950 kilometers south of Manila.
"There are fighting on the island and two of our soldiers were wounded. We have reports saying that many terrorists were killed and wounded," said Marine Lieutenant Colonel Abid Bajunaid, of the Southern Command.
The latest casualties bring to seven the number of soldiers wounded in the fighting since Tuesday. The military said at least three militants were also killed and two more wounded in the fighting when security forces attacked terrorist hideouts in at least four hinterland villages in the town of Indanan.
Soldiers were also tracking down Khadaffy Janjalani, the chieftain of the Abu Sayyaf group, but there were no fresh reports about his location or any of the two JI bombers.
Patek, an Indonesian explosive expert, was believed to have played a role in the Bali bombing in which more than 200 people were killed. Both Patek and Dulmatin, a Malaysian electronics expert, evaded a massive police hunt in Indonesia after the Bali bombing and fled to Mindanao in the southern Philippines in August 2003 soon after the bombing of the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta.
Police on the island said four fishermen were also arrested by the military after soldiers caught them carrying illegal weapons near Indanan town and are being interrogated.
The US military is also helping in the anti-terror campaign by providing intelligence to the Philippine military, Filipino security officials said.
Washington listed the Abu Sayyaf as a foreign terrorist organization. The group was implicated in the kidnapping of three US citizens, two getting killed in captivity, in 2001. The US has offered $10 million bounty each for the capture of Janjalani and Dulmatin and another $1 million for Patek.
Dulmatin and two more JI leaders, including Patek, were also reported training Filipino recruits in Mindanao under the protection of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's largest Muslim rebel group which is currently negotiating peace with the Arroyo government, according to Zachary Abuza, an Associate Professor for Political Science and International Relations at Boston's Simmons College.
The MILF branded Abuza's statement as an old issue, but said it is ready to cooperate with the Philippine authorities and investigate the matter.
The Afghanistan-trained Dulmatin was also said to be raising funds for terror campaign in the Philippines and Indonesia, Abuza said.
Philippine authorities have implicated Dulmatin in the 2003 bombing of the Davao International Airport and Sasa wharf in Davao City in Mindanao.Three of his local Abu Sayyaf contacts -- Pedro Guiamat, Ali Salipada and Norodin Mangalen -- were arrested last year in Maguindanao Province.
A bomb hidden in a backpack exploded in March 2003 at the Davao airport terminal, killing 19 people, including a US missionary William Hyde, and wounding more than 145 people. A second bomb explosion also ripped through a passenger terminal in Sasa wharf that killed and wounded dozens of people.
In 2005, Dulmatin and Umar Patek ordered Abdullah Sonata, a JI operative in Central Java who was arrested in conjunction with the September 4, 2004 Australian Embassy bombing, to dispatch additional JI members to Mindanao for training. He has also called for JI suicide bombers to be sent to the Philippines for operations. (Sunnex)
(August 5, 2006 issue)
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