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Monday, August 20, 2007
Soldiers shell Sayyaf strongholds
MANILA -- US-backed troops bombarded Muslim rebel strongholds with artillery shells on southern Basilan Island Sunday, a day after 15 marines and 40 militants were killed in a fierce gun battle, officials said.
The Marines were killed when their unit attacked a jungle hideout of the al Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group near Basilan's remote town of Ungkaya Pukan, sparking a daylong clash during which an air force pilot also died when his helicopter crashed into the sea, the military said.
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The military claimed about 40 Abu Sayyaf insurgents were killed, including two commanders who allegedly took part in last month's beheadings of 10 marines on Basilan.
The bodies of senior Abu Sayyaf leader Furiji Indama and his brother Umair Indama were among the seven recovered by the authorities so far, said military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Bartolome Bacarro.
Underestimate
Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo, a regional military commander, said the Marines apparently underestimated the rebels' firepower.
"They were not able to assess properly the strength of the enemy during the assault," Cedo told ABS-CBN television.
Saturday's clash involved about 80 Abu Sayyaf gunmen, Cedo said, adding that hundreds of troops were pursuing those who survived. The bodies of slain rebels were scattered around the battle scene, he said.
Military chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon said Isnilon Hapilon, an Abu Sayyaf commander wanted by the US and Philippine governments for alleged kidnappings and bomb attacks, was among those being hunted by troops in Basilan.
It was not clear whether Hapilon was involved in Saturday's fighting.
"We are making a promise to make the province unfit for those who want to rule it with arms," Esperon said.
Troops fired 105 mm howitzer shells early Sunday at suspected Abu Sayyaf positions near Ungkaya Pukan and the nearby townships of Sumisip and Tipo Tipo but there was no immediate report of casualties, officials said.
On nearby Jolo Island, troops raided a suspected Abu Sayyaf safe house in Indanan township early Sunday. They took into custody 19 men, women, and children and seized four M-16 rifles and ammunition, army Maj. Gen. Ruben Rafael said.
After questioning, 14 were released but five men remained in military custody while investigators tried to determine whether they were Abu Sayyaf gunmen, Rafael said.
Bacarro said US forces involved in counter-terrorism training in the country's south were providing intelligence to help Philippine troops track down the Abu Sayyaf militants. The Americans have also provided combat training to local troops.
New offensive
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had ordered a fresh offensive against the Abu Sayyaf, a small but violent group listed by Washington as a terrorist organization, after it was implicated in the July 10 beheadings of 10 Marines following a clash in Basilan's Al-Barka township.
A larger Muslim rebel group engaged in peace talks with the government, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, admitted its rebels killed 14 marines during the clash in Al-Barka, accusing them of encroaching into a rebel stronghold.
But the MILF denied its men beheaded 10 of the 14 marines.
Angered by the beheadings, the 120,000-strong military launched a new offensive against the Abu Sayyaf on Basilan and Jolo island. (AP)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Manila. (August 20, 2007 issue)
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