Casualties are reported on both sides as a military assault on an Abu Sayyaf camp in Basilan ends
A week-long assault by Philippine troops ended with the capture of a terrorist camp and the deaths of 26 militants and 3 soldiers, a military spokesman said on Sunday, December 20.
Soldiers captured
the Abu Sayyaf camp in a forested area on the southern island of Basilan
but an improvised explosive device left behind by the fighters injured 12
soldiers on Sunday, said Major Filemon Tan.
"After we
captured the camp, they were clearing the bunkers when the IED exploded,"
he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
About 300
soldiers, backed by artillery and attack helicopters, launched the attack on
the Abu Sayyaf group on strife-torn Basilan about 885 kilometers (550 miles)
from Manila on
Monday, December 14, starting days of intense combat.
The battle
involved as many as 150 members of the Abu Sayyaf group, according to the
military, which also reported militant deaths that could not be verified.
A total of 26 Abu
Sayyaf fighters were slain, Tan said, but the military was unable to recover
their bodies.
"The
populace of the area, they confirmed it. They were buried at once according to
Muslim tradition. Others were seen by our troops, being shot, falling and not
getting up," he told AFP.
The rest of the
Abu Sayyaf members fled in different directions before dawn on Sunday, he said.
Sixteen Abu
Sayyaf fighters were also wounded along with 14 soldiers before the IED blast
on Sunday, Tan added.
Pursuit
operations were continuing against the remnants of the Abu Sayyaf group and its
leaders in Basilan, he said.
The captured
camp, measuring 30,000 square meters (323,000 feet) could accomodate about 250
people with 28 structures including fortified bunkers, the military said.
Basilan, an
impoverished island of about 400,000 people, has long been a stronghold of the
Abu Sayyaf, a group formed in the 1990s with the help of Al-Qaeda founder Osama
bin Laden.
The Abu Sayyaf is
infamous for kidnapping people, including foreigners and demanding huge ransoms
for their release.
The group has
also been blamed for the worst terror attacks in the country, including the
firebombing of a ferry off Manila
Bay in 2004 that killed
over 100 people.
Last year, Abu
Sayyaf leaders pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, which controls
vast swathes of Syria and Iraq .
http://www.rappler.com/nation/116580-soldiers-abu-sayyaf-camp-assault
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