Government security forces are battling “heavily armed” gunmen suspected of being Abu Sayyaf fighters in the town of Inabanga, Bohol, authorities confirmed Tuesday.
The clash broke out around 7 a.m. when troops from the Army’s 47th Infantry Battalion led by 2nd Lieutenant Estelito Saldua, joined by police, acted on intelligence information on the presence of gunmen by the riverside in Sitio Ilaya, Barangay Napo, Armed Forces chief of staff General Eduardo Año confirmed.
Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa also told journalists at least one soldier was killed and another wounded in the clash.
The gun battle came a day after Dela Rosa confirmed what the US embassy in Manila, in an advisory on Sunday, had warned of Sunday “unsubstantiated yet credible information that terrorist groups may attempt to conduct kidnappings” in Central Visayas.
“The security operation was launched in relation to the monitored presence of 10 armed men with three pumpboats” sighted by residents in Ilaya, the statement from Año said.
An earlier report from the 3rd Military Intelligence Battalion on Monday said three unidentified speedboats were seen near the home of a Normal Millorya in Ilaya, which tended to bolster separate information from the intelligence unit of the 3rd Infantry Division that an alleged Abu Sayyaf ,e,ber under Muammar Askali, alias Abu Rami, who had been monitored in Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte, “was already in Inabanga.”
Another suspected Abu Sayyaf member was also reported to have been monitored in Siquijor province.
The forces that engaged the group described it to be “well armed with heavy caliber weapons” but reported that the gunmen were “now cornered in an isolated section of the sitio.”
More troops have been sent to reinforce those involved in the ongoing firefight.
http://interaksyon.com/article/138413/govt-forces-clash-with-suspected-abu-sayyaf-fighters-in-bohol
http://interaksyon.com/article/138413/govt-forces-clash-with-suspected-abu-sayyaf-fighters-in-bohol
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