Troops wounded in attack

FOUR government forces were wounded in an attack staged by combined Abu Sayyaf and rouge Moro rebels in the hinterlands of Basilan, a military official said Saturday.

First Lieutenant Steffani Cacho, Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) information officer, said the incident took place around 6 a.m. Saturday in the village of Guiong, Sumisip town.

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Cacho said the combined Marines and militia forces were manning a patrol base when they were attacked by combined Abu Sayyaf bandits and rouge members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The government troops from the Marine Battalion Landing Team 7 (MBLT-7) and Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu) put up a fight and repelled the attackers following a few minutes firefight.

Four of the government forces were wounded in the clash, Cacho said.

No identities of the wounded troops were immediately available except that one of them is a Marine soldier and the other three were militiamen, she said.

Cacho said the military viewed the attack as a retaliation of the Abu Sayyaf bandits against government forces who captured last week a bomb-making camp of terrorists in the village of Baiwas, Sumisip town.

The troops have recovered improvised bombs, training and bomb-making manual and other materials being used in manufacturing bombs in last week’s raid. (Bong Garcia)