No sightings of 2 sisters as troops clash with Abus

From the Manila Standard Today (Jun 29): No sightings of 2 sisters as troops clash with Abus

Soldiers killed two Islamic extremists and wounded five others in the southern Philippines as government forces continued searching for two kidnapped filmmaker sisters, a military official said Friday.

This developed as a commander of the Bangsamoro Freedom Fighters, who attacked government positions in Sultan Kudarat and Cotabato, demanded payment from the government for the death of his kinsman.

The slaim extremists, who were members of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, opened fire on a military helicopter in Sulu island on Thursday, prompting the armed forces to counter-attack, said local Marine commander Colonel Jose Cenabre.

“The aerial attack was launched immediately on the area which led to the two killed,” followed by a ground assault, he said.

He said there had been no sightings of Linda Bansil, 35 and her sister, Nadjoua, 39, who were seized in the area of the attack on Saturday while working on a film about Sulu’s impoverished Muslim coffee farmers.

The abduction shocked local residents, with the Muslim sisters active in human rights advocacy and having worked on films showcasing the plight of the Muslim minority in the largely-Christian Philippines.

The Abu Sayyaf is an extremist group founded with seed money from Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden in the 1990s. The US government has officially designated it a terrorist organisation.

Meanwhile, BFF commander Samsudin, a former commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front who defected to the Moro National Liberation Front, demanded that the government pay his family P300,000 for the death of a kinsman who was part of the attack on military posts in Suktan Kudarat, Datu Piang and North Cotabato.

Samsudin claimed that he attacked the government posts manned by militiamen to avenge the land grabbing of their ancestral land.

“We demand that the P300,000 expenses [incurred] the death of our relative be compensated back to prevent similar attacks in the future. The land that was grabbed must be returned to them,” Samsudin said.

At least six Muslim rebels have been killed in the three-day skirmishes with government troops that started last Tuesday.

But the fighting subsided a few hours after religious leaders and elders intervene asked for a ceasefire to settle Samsudin’s supposed grivances.

During the talks, Samsudin pressed for the return of their ancestral land grabbed by influential persons, particularly in Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/06/29/no-sightings-of-2-sisters-as-troops-clash-with-abus/