AFP won't stop hunt for Usman, '5 foreign terrorists'

From InterAksyon (Mar 9): AFP won't stop hunt for Usman, '5 foreign terrorists'



BIFF Commander Tambako, file photograph by Dennis Arcon.

Armed Forces Philippines (AFP) spokesman Brig. Gen. Joselito Kakilala said the hunt against terrorist Abdul Basit Usman and five suspected foreign terrorists fleeing with him will not be stopped even after the expiration of the second three-day or 72-hour extension of the all-out offensive against the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

"Our units on the ground will not give them time to rest. There is no time line but we will make sure they will be on the run every day until such time that they are finally cornered and captured," Kakilala said.

Usman and some of his men managed to slip away in the law enforcement operation executed by the Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) on January 25 to serve warrants of arrest on him and international terrorist Zulkifli Abdhir (nom de guerre Marwan), in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

Marwan was believed to have been killed in the operation that went sour.

The mission turned disastrous as 44 of the police commandos perished after they were overwhelmed by combined forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and BIFF before they could withdraw from the scene.

The 12-hour firefight also killed 18 rebels, so the MILF claimed, and 5 civilians.

Kakilala said Usman and his foreign cohorts were believed to be coddled by the group of Mohammad Ali Tambako, nephew of BIFF founder Ameril Umbra Kato, who recently formed his Justice for Islamic Movement (JIM) with only a handful of followers.

The military still has no concrete information as to where Kato could be hiding after he reportedly suffered a series of strokes a few years ago that caused him to be bed-ridden for a time.

The leadership vacuum of the BIFF became a tussle between Tambako and Kagi Karialan, Kato's chief of staff.

In the end, Tambako is believed to have formed his own unit after he failed to kill Karialan in a bomb explosion.

"Let's be clear though that the BIFF and JIM is one and the same, the same dogs with different collars," Kakilala said.

Meanwhile, the military said the all-out offensive against the BIFF in Cotabato and Maguindanao has already killed 73 persons and wounded 33 on the BIFF side. At least 4 of them were captured during running gun battles.

According to Lt Col. Harold Cabunoc, AFP Public Affairs Office (PAO) chief, four soldiers were killed and 29 wounded on the government side.

The government offensives were triggered by the displacement of 25,000 residents from the villages of Pikit, Cotabato because of the armed intramural between the MILF and BIFF.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/106557/afp-wont-stop-hunt-for-usman-5-foreign-terrorists