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Philippine troops capture Abu Sayyaf camp after fierce battle
 Philippine marines captured a jungle base of the Abu Sayyaf group following a fierce battle that left two soldiers injured in the southern Philippine province of Sulu.Marine Captain Maria Rowena Muyuela said troops recovered a huge cache of improvised explosives from the Abu Sayyaf base in Patikul town believed used by Radulan Sahiron, a senior leader of the group. Quoting military reports, Muyuela said the rebels were forced to flee - dragging their casualties - when more marine reinforcements arrived at the town, a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf. Brigadier General Martin Pinto described the Abu Sayyaf camp as "well fortified". He said, "The seized camp is fortified with connecting trenches, well—established firing positions and with hundreds of improvised explosive device emplaced in all approaches." He added that the persistence of troops forced the heavily-armed militants to break into smaller groups and flee. He said, "Our troops had to breach the enemy's defenses and squeeze themselves to the complex terrain to be able to get closer to the objective. Despite the Abu Sayyaf's terrain advantage, the marines held their ground and returned fire as they inched their way to the camp, clearing several enemy satellite camps and the eventual capture of the Abu Sayyaf base." Pinto said, "The persistence of the troops to push forward forced the heavily-armed Abu Sayyaf militants to escape and scamper towards different directions, taking along with them undetermined number of casualties - their dead and wounded members - while on the government side, we only have two marines who suffered minor wounds from the battle." Authorities said there was no indication that Sahiron was among the dead or injured in the fighting which began on June 30, but there were reports that the Abu Sayyaf had fled with some of their kidnapped victims. Posted by: ryuge 2014-07-03 |
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