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Tuesday, February 05, 2008
5 killed, 5 wounded in Sulu clash
By Bong Garcia
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Filipino troops trained by US forces clashed Monday with a group of Abu Sayyaf bandits, killing three of them, while on rescue operations for an abducted rice trader in the province of Sulu.
Two soldiers were also killed while five others, including a junior officer, were wounded in the firefight that broke out around 2:55 a.m. in the town of Maimbung.
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The identities of the killed and injured soldiers were not immediately known except that they are members of the 3rd Light Reaction Company and Philippine Navy.
Major Eugenio Batara Jr., Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) information officer, said the clash broke out when the troops chanced upon the group of bandits in the village of Ipil in Maimbung town.
The soldiers are scouring the hinterlands of Sulu to locate and rescue Maria Rosalie Lao, a rice trader of Jolo, the capital town of Sulu.
Lao, 58, was seized by five bandits around 4:45 p.m. of January 28 near her residence in Kakuyagan village, Jolo.
She was on her way home when the bandits blocked her vehicle and forced her to board their jeepney, bringing her with them.
The military and police tagged the group of Al-Bader Parad as the one that abducted Lao.
Parad is one of the bandit leaders involved in the kidnapping of 21 people, including Europeans, in April of 2000 from a resort in Sipadan, Malaysia.
Reports said the bandits had fled to Patikul and transferred Lao to Mount Tumatangis in the town of Indanan, a municipality adjacent to Maimbung.
Batara said the troops are pursuing the bandits led by Dr. Abu Pula that fled in different directions.
"Westmincom commander Nelson Allaga has issued directives to the troops to sustain the pursuit operation against the fleeing terrorists, specifically Pula and Parad who are two of the most wanted Abu Sayyaf leaders," he said.
Pula, like Parad, was also involved in the Sipadan kidnapping.
Pula and Parad are both wanted by the US government, which has offered a US$100,000 and US$15,000 bounty for the neutralization, respectively.
Batara said the combined 3rd LRC and Navy troops have recovered the remains of the three slain Abu Sayyaf followers and an M-16 Armalite rifle while pursuing the fleeing bandits.
The LRC troops were trained by US forces during the conduct of the Balikatan 02-1 held in 2001 in Zamboanga City and in nearby Basilan province.
Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) Police Office, said there has been no ransom demand yet from the abductors of Lao.
A bandit leader identified as Wahab Upao was killed last Thursday in a remote village of Panglima Sugala town, Tawi-Tawi. He was killed by troops pursuing the kidnappers of Notre Dame High School teacher Omar Taup.
The bandits, who barged into the Notre Dame campus in Tabawan Island, South Ubian, took Taup as hostage after killing Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) priest Fr. Jesus Reynaldo Roda who resisted them.
The bandits are demanding ransom of P1 million in exchange for the release of Taup. (With VR/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cebu. (February 5, 2008 issue)
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