Senior Abu Sayyaf leader wounded: military official

From ABS-CBN (Nov 18): Senior Abu Sayyaf leader wounded: military official

BASILAN - Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) senior leader Isnilon Hapilon was wounded after a 40-minute gun battle with government forces in Sumisip, Basilan last October 25, a military official said.

Captain Roy Vincent Trinidad, chief of staff of Joint Task Force ZamBaSulTa, said Hapilon sustained at least two gunshot wounds on his foot and back.

Trinidad said this information was taken from multiple sources and assets on the ground who have direct access to the core group of the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan.

Trinidad said military units were conducting a security patrol in the village of Baiwas when they encountered more than 50 armed bandits.

The fierce encounter left three members of the ASG dead while several others were wounded. Four were injured on the military side.

A wounded Hapilon was extricated immediately by his men from the site of encounter.

Trinidad said efforts are underway to determine the present condition of Hapilon.

Hapilon has a string of arrest warrants mostly from kidnapping cases he spearheaded in Basilan and western Mindanao.

He was also involved in the 2001 Dos Palmas resort kidnapping in Palawan where three American nationals were held hostage for several months.

The US government offered a $5 million bounty for any information that could lead to the arrest or neutralization of Hapilon.

Trinidad believes that with the wounding of Hapilon, the morale of the bandits were low. 

The Abu Sayyaf Group is responsible for most of the kidnapping and bombing incidents in the ZamBaSulTa area.

The group was formed using seed money from Al-Qaeda.

Some of the foreign bomb experts have also been helping the Abu Sayyaf Group in conducting extensive training.

Last May 2015, a bomb factory was discovered in Mohammad Ajul town in Basilan.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/11/18/15/senior-abu-sayyaf-leader-wounded-military-official