Ground units ordered to continue operations until ASG eliminated

From Update.Ph (Apr 10): Ground units ordered to continue operations until ASG eliminated

Despite heavy government losses in Saturday’s clash with Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) bandits in Tipo-Tipo, Basilan, military operations aimed at totally eliminating the brigands will continue.

This was the assurance given on Sunday by Philippine Army (PA) commander Lt. Gen. Eduardo Ano who, together with Armed Forces chief-of-staff Gen. Hernando DCA Iriberri and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, were in Zamboanga City.

“Instructions to ground units are to continue the operations until the ASGs are decimated,” Ano said.

“We are here not to actually investigate [on] what happened, but [to plan] how we can continue the operations and finally destroy the ASG, especially now that we have identified the exact location of the bandits,” he said in Filipino.

Eighteen troopers were killed and 53 others were wounded in a more than nine-hour encounter with ASG bandits in Sitio Bayoko, Baguindan which started at 7:55 a.m. and ended at 5:30 p.m. on April 9.

The PA chief added that appropriate honors and benefits will be given to all military casualties.

He attributed the high number of military casualties to the bandits’ possible use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) or crew-served weapons during the initial stage of the fight.

ASG forces encountered were initially estimated at over 100.

The confirmed number of bandits killed in the operations was placed at five, including Moroccan terrorist Mohammad Khattab, who was in the country for three years and trying to act as a conduit between a “Middle East international terrorist group.” Around 20 bandits were also wounded in the firefight.

Khattab’s presence in the Philippine was detected last year and Ano said the slain Moroccan was an IED expert.

Ano said the number of ASG bandits killed and wounded could go higher once intelligence reports start coming in.

http://www.update.ph/2016/04/ground-units-ordered-to-continue-operations-until-asg-eliminated/4147