FOR the nth time,
Filipino bomber Abdul Basit Usman escaped but four of his 20-man Muslim
protectors were killed after the group engaged Marines in a firefight Saturday
night in Shariff Saydona in Maguindanao, an official said Sunday.
Armed Forces
spokesman Harold Cabunoc said the Marines seized four high-powered firearms
from the dead terrorists who were members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom
Fighters.
He made his
statement even as the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf on Saturday freed a Malaysian
policeman that they abducted at a diving resort in Semporna, Malaysia, in July
last year
Marine police
constable Zakiah Aleip, 26, was released by his captors after being held
captive for 16 months.
Usman is believed
to have with him five foreign terrorists moving around the so-called “SPMS box”
together with the group of Mohammad Ali Tambako, a self-styled leader of the
Justice for Islamic Movement or JIM, a 30-man break-away group of the BIFF.
Based on the
report of Lt. Col. Willy Manalang, commanding Officer of the Marine Battalion
Landing Team 8, the firefight between his men and Usman’s group happened at
around 10 pm.
“My troops
surprised the enemy and engaged them in a firefight foir 15 minutes,” Manalang
said.
He said Usman and
his BIFF protectors left their dead behind.
Meanwhile, the
military in Central Mindanao has asked for
another 72-hour extension of its offensive as its soldiers continued to
constrict the areas where Usman and his protectors had been hiding to avoid
pursuing government troops.
“We have a new
72-hour extension to sustain the hunt for high-value terrorists and the BIFF
that’s coddling them,” Armed Forces spokesman Joselito Kakilala said.
He said the
second extension was requested from higher headquarters by Major General
Edmundo Pangilinan, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, following
Saturday night’s firefight between the Marines and the group of Usman in
Shariff Saydona, Maguindanao.
Cabunoc said one
of the terrorists killed in the clash on Saturday was in camouflage uniform of
the Special Action Force of the Philippine National police.
Kakilala said
troops on the ground were verifying if the dead suspect was one of the BIFF men
who waylaid the SAF commandos on Jan. 25 and killed 44 of them.
The commandos
were withdrawing after a successful mission to neutralize international
terrorist Zukifli Abdhir when they were waylaid by combined fighters of the
BIFF and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Usman and some of
his men were able to escape during a firefight with the SAF commandos.
In 2008, the MILF
expelled from the organization one of its commanders, Ameril Umbra Kato, who,
in turn, formed the BIFF.
According to
Kakilala, Usman was also being protected by the group of Ali Tambako, a former
leader of the BIFF and now leader of a handful of Muslim militants who call
their group Justice for the Islamic Movement.
http://manilastandardtoday.com/2015/03/09/usman-eludes-military-again-in-maguindanao/
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