ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Seven members of the Philippine Marine Corps were wounded in a roadside bombing perpetrated by the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in the province of Sulu, officials said Thursday.
Major Felimon Tan, Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) information officer, said the incident occurred around 6:50 a.m. Thursday in the village of Lagtoh, Talipao, Sulu.
Tan did not release the identities of the wounded soldiers but said they belong to the Marine Battalion Landing Team-10 (MBLT-10).
The troops were on a convoy en route to the village of Kuhaw, Talipao, coming from the village of Katian, Indanan, to serve as advance forces when they tripped on an improvised bomb fashioned out as a landmine.
Tan said the injured marines were immediately evacuated to the Trauma Hospital in Camp Bautista, Jolo, Sulu. They were airlifted around 9:25 a.m. to the Camp Navarro General Hospital, a military medical facility in this city.
Brigadier General Alan Arrojado, Joint Task Group Sulu (JTGS) commander, said the roadside bombing was perpetrated by a group of 20 ASG members who are followers of Radulan Sahiron.
Arrojado said that based on intelligence report, three of the bandits were identified as Amrin Absara, Abral Alih, and a certain Asaral.
The incident occurred a week after the ASG set off an improvised bomb inside a videoke bar just outside Camp Bautista that houses the JTGS headquarters in the village of Bus-Bus, Jolo.
No one was either killed or wounded during the incident, which took place in the evening of January 28.
Arrojado said the bombing is a diversionary tactic of the Abu Sayyafs to disrupt the focus of the troops who are closing in on them.
He said they have found out that Sahiron is planning to conduct bombings in Jolo and in areas frequented by the troops to divert the focus of the soldiers closing in on the bandits in the hinterlands of Patikul and Talipao towns. (Sunnex)