GOVERNMENT troops
clashed with some 200 Abu Sayyaf fighters Thursday in an hour-long
firefight in Indanan, Sulu, that left 15 bandits and a soldier dead and scores
wounded on both sides.
The huge number
of Abu Sayyaf fighters involved in a single firefight seemed to contradict the
repeated assertions by military officials that the numbers of the Abu Sayyaf
were dwindling, and that the “remnants” were fewer than 400.
But Col. Noel
Detoyato, head of public affairs of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP),
said the Abu Sayyaf bandits might be consolidating.
Capt. Antonio
Bulao of the Joint Task Group Sulu added that they were reinforced by fighters
belonging to the Nur Misuari faction of the Moro National Liberation Front
(MNLF).
Military and
police officials say the number of Abu Sayyaf fighters has dropped from a peak
of 1,500 in the early 2000s to just a few hundreds.
On Thursday, at
around 5:20 p.m., a company from the 1st Scout Ranger Battalion stormed
the Abu Sayyaf lair in Barangay Buanza.
“At first, we
estimated there were about 80 of them, but as the fighting continued, their
numbers increased to an estimated 200,” Detoyato said.
The pursuing
soldiers recovered at least five dead bandits.
The military
pressed the attack against the escaping bandits that led to the rescue of
Seaman 1st Class Rod
Pagaling and
Seaman 2nd Class Gringo Villaruz, both belonging to the Coast Guard.
Pagaling and
Villaruz together with Roldolfo Boligao, village chief of Aliguay, Dapitan City
The two Coast
Guard men sprinted through gunfire to freedom as government forces raided the
bandit hideout, the Army said.
Villaruz and
Pagaling slipped separately from the Abu Sayyaf camp on Wednesday
night and raced through the jungle as their captors engaged in a gunbattle with
the military, Detoyato said.
“Apparently at
the height of the encounter, the two Coast Guard men were able to flee,” he
said.
The men sought
refuge at a village about 1.5 kilometers away, said Bulao, the spokesman of the
unit involved in the clash.
Found an hour
apart, they did not know the other had escaped until they saw each other
Thursday at a local hospital where they were being treated for bruises.
Yasser Igasan,
one of the Abu Sayyaf Group’s most senior leaders, was believed to have escaped
after the firefight, Detoyato said.
Fifteen Abu
Sayyaf gunmen were killed, but the remains of only five were recovered as the
rest were carried away by their comrades, he said. Several soldiers sustained
minor injuries.
The fighting was
so fierce that the military had to use artillery to drive the bandits back,
Detoyato said.
“It was a long
fight: one hour and 35 minutes. That is unusual because they normally disengage
immediately,” he said.
Bulao said
Villaruz and Pagaling told authorities four other hostages were held with them,
including a Malaysian and a Korean. He said the military would continue efforts
to free all the hostages.
Separate fighting
in neighboring Basilan island on Wednesday left five Abu Sayyaf
members and one soldier killed, the military said.
Impoverished Jolo
and Basilan are known strongholds of the Abu Sayyaf, a loose band of several
hundred armed men set up in the 1990s with seed money from the Al-Qaeda network
of Osama Bin Laden.
The group engages
in kidnappings to finance operations, often targeting foreigners and sometimes
beheading captives if ransom is not paid.
It has also been
blamed for the worst bomb attacks in the country, including the firebombing of
a ferry off Manila
Bay
The Palace
commended the AFP for conducting operations to free the two Coast Guard
personnel held captive by the Abu Sayyaf.
“We believe that
operations are still ongoing in Sulu, and the military troops have succeeded in
breaking the areas that were previously held by the Abu Sayyaf Group,” said
Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr.
http://manilastandardtoday.com/2015/08/21/-afp-battles-abu/
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