Three Marines dead in Abu Sayyaf attack

From Malaya Business Insight (Jul 15): Three Marines dead in Abu Sayyaf attack

THREE Marines on a housekeeping run died yesterday in an ambush staged by the Abu Sayyaf group in Indanan, Sulu.

The slain soldiers were assigned with the Marine Battalion Landing Team 10. Their names were withheld pending notification of their families.

Maj. Filemon Tan, spokesman of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, said initial reports from ground units showed the three soldiers were procuring supplies in Barangay Manilop at around 8 a.m. when they were waylaid by an undetermined number of suspects. They were on foot and were not able to fire back at the Abu Sayyaf men.

Tan said the bodies of the slain soldiers were brought to Camp Teodulfo Bautista in Jolo town.

Government soldiers have intensified operations against the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu and in Basilan in the wake of President Duterte’s promise to end the group notorious for kidnap-for-ransom activities and beheading its hostages.

The Abu Sayyaf is holding about a dozen of foreign and Filipino hostages in Sulu. Authorities are checking if the Abu Sayyaf was indeed involved in the kidnapping of three Indonesian sailors in Malaysia last Saturday and if the victims are in Sulu.

http://www.malaya.com.ph/business-news/news/three-marines-dead-abu-sayyaf-attack