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| Southeast Asia |
| Update of Filippino festivities |
| 2005-01-28 |
| Air Force helicopters and bomber planes fired rockets and dropped bombs Thursday on houses in a southern marshland where Indonesian and Philippine Muslim extremist leaders were believed to be hiding, officials said. The targets included the chief of the extremist Abu Sayyaf group and at least three Indonesian members of Jemaah Islamiya, a regional terrorist group that bombed nightclubs on Indonesia's Bali Island in 2002, officials said. Col. Domingo Tutaan Jr., chief of staff of the Zamboanga-based Southern Command, said the attack on Butilan Marsh in Datu Piang town also targeted Muslim rebels that raided an Army detachment in Mamasapano. Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza had ordered the attack on learning that the rebels, headed by Commander Wahib Kalil Tundok, were staying in the area. Tutaan said two bomber planes dropped several 250-pound bombs; two attack helicopters fired rockets at six houses, mostly on stilts, where the extremist leaders were believed to have taken refuge. "We had six targets, and they were all hit in the bombing runs," Tutaan said. He said casualties were likely, but that he was still waiting for a bomb damage assessment and the report of ground troops to verify the number. Army spokesman Col. Franklin del Prado said Abu Sayyaf chief Khadaffy Janjalani and at least three Indonesian Jemaah Islamiya members, including Dulmatin, who allegedly played a key role in the Bali bombings, were believed to be hiding in the area. Tutaan said the marshland was difficult for ground forces to penetrate, so the military had deployed five helicopters to airlift troops there. A naval blockade has also been erected to prevent the militants from escaping, he added. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |