Troops clashed with Sayyafs in South

From the Mindanao Examiner (Mar 25, 2019): Troops clashed with Sayyafs in South

Government troops clashed with Abu Sayyaf militants on the southern Philippine island of Simisa where security forces are hunting the pro-ISIS terror group, officials said Monday.

Citing intelligence report, officials claimed that 3 militants were killed in Sunday and Monday’s clashes, but soldiers failed to recover bodies of the slain gunmen. No soldiers were reported wounded or killed in the fighting on Simisa Island.

Marines were tracking down the group of Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Najir Arik on the remote island when it ran into a band of militants, sparking gun battles in two sites.

“The exchange of fires that lasted for 5 minutes resulted to three enemies killed based on human intelligence, while no casualty was reported on the government side. Pursuit operation was immediately conducted to go after the fleeing bandits.”

“While conducting pursuit operation at 8:02 am today, troops of the Marine Battalion Landing Team 1 chanced upon the fleeing bandits few meters away from the first encounter site. Intermittent firefight lasted for about twenty minutes,” said Lieutenant General Arnel Dela Vega, chief of the Western Mindanao Command, adding, the anti-terror Joint Task Force Sulu continues to intensify the conduct of offensives against the Abu Sayyaf, whose leaders have pledged allegiance to ISIS.

The Abu Sayyaf is still holding nearly dozen mostly Malaysian and Indonesian fishermen kidnapped for ransom off Sabah and has recently threatened to executive 3 captives if ransoms running into tens of millions of pesos are not paid by Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur. No deadline has been set for the execution of 2 Indonesians and a Malaysian fisherman.

https://mindanaoexaminer.com/troops-clashed-with-sayyafs-in-south/