Abu leader slain; AFP goes after remnants

From the Manila Standard Today (Nov 24): Abu leader slain; AFP goes after remnants

THE government on Sunday said there would be no let-up in military operations against the Abu Sayyaf Group as the Armed Forces scored a victory with the killing over the weekend of an ASG leader who carried a P5.3 million bounty.

“Our government will continue with our law enforcement operations in coordination with our local leaders,” Communications Secretary Hermino Coloma said.

“We ask for the cooperation of our citizens to end once and for all this bandit group that has been committing crimes in their communities.”

Col. Alan Arrojado, commander of the Joint Task Force Sulu, identified the Abu Sayyaf leader as Sihata Latip.

Latip, whose real name is Sihata Muallom Asmad but also goes by the alias Ka Tatang, was killed in a shootout in Parang, Sulu.

“This is only shows the determination of government to end the criminal activities committed by bandit groups such as the Abu Sayyaf,” Coloma added.

Earlier, President Benigno Aquino III said the government has short-term and long-term targets in dealing with the ASG.

“For the long term, we have to recover the communities that have been supporting the Abu Sayyaf. We also need to initiate massive development in Sulu, in Basilan. If there is investment, if there is development, the Abu Sayyaf will have no more reason to recruit new members,” the President added.

Aquino said the military has sufficient forces to deal with the ASG, which he said has around 200 members and another 200 sympathizers.

“We have several battalions, not just one or two or three, but several battalions composed of some of our most elite forces and the regular line infantry battalions who are going to all of these mountain lairs and very heavily wooded jungle and dense areas to precisely deprive them of safe havens,” the President said.

Arrojado said Latip resisted arrest and engaged security forces in a firefight late Saturday afternoon in Barangay Duyan Kaha, Parang, Sulu.

One soldier died and another was wounded in the exchange.

“Latip was involved in the abduction of foreigners and in a series of violent attacks against government forces,” Arrojado said.

Police public information officer Chief Inspector Elizabeth Jasmin said Latip carried a P5.3 million bounty and was involved in the kidnapping this year of a Taiwanese and a German couple, who were released in exchange for multi-million-peso ransoms.

Recently, 10 bandits and five soldiers were killed in a five-hour encounter with dozens of wounded in Talipao town.

The ASG was organized in the early 2000 with a peak of more than 1,000 members and became a notorious kidnap-for-ransom gang in southern Mindanao.

Over the years, the military claimed they had reduced their number, but recent encounters in Baslan and Sulu the military cast doubts on these claims.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2014/11/24/abu-leader-slain-afp-goes-after-remnants/