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| Southeast Asia |
| Abu Sayyaf Sulu stronghold overrun |
| 2005-08-12 |
| GOVERNMENT troops stormed Friday a suspected Abu Sayyaf hideout in the southern Philippine island of Jolo, Sulu province, barely two days after 26 people were injured in twin bombings here blamed to the militant group tied to al-Qaeda terror network, officials said. Officials said a still undetermined number of militants were either killed or wounded, but a government soldier was also injured in the fierce fighting that erupted in the hinterland of Indanan town. "One of our soldiers was injured and initial reports suggested that many terrorists were either killed or wounded. Fierce fighting is still going on," said Brigadier General Alexander Aleo, the island's military commander. Troops stormed a suspected Abu Sayyaf hideout in Tarang village after intelligence reports said two militant leaders, Albader Parad and Umbra Gumbahali Jumdail, alias Dr Abu Pula, were spotted there. "It was not immediately known if Parad and Jumdail were killed or wounded in the attack, but we will get all of them dead or alive," the general said. The duo were among a dozen known Abu Sayyaf leaders wanted by the United States in connection with the killing of Californian tourist Guillermo Sobero in 2001 and Kansas missionary Martin Burham in 2002. Government forces captured early this year Parad and Jumdail's jungle camp in Jolo's Karawan mountain complex after killing and wounding more than three-dozen militants in two weeks of fierce fighting. Authorities blamed the Abu Sayyaf and its ally the Jemaah Islamiya in Wednesday bombings in Zamboanga City that destroyed several buildings in the busy business district and is notorious for kidnapping foreigners and local traders in the southern Philippines and holding them for hefty ransoms. The government offensive came barely a day after President Gloria Arroyo condemned the bombings and ordered the police and military to get to the root of the attacks and bring their perpetrators to justice. A police spokesman, Leopoldo Bataoil, on Friday said they would mount pre-emptive strikes against the Abu Sayyaf group and their allies. "We will hold pre-emptive strikes and hunt down terrorists in their known hideouts," he said. National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales earlier said at least 10 Indonesian Jemaah Islamiya bombers are in the Philippines and were planning to mount a series of attacks and claimed the latest explosions could be part of a larger terror plot. Security forces are on heightened alert in the southern Philippines following the two Abu Sayyaf bombings. Soldiers and policemen, backed by armored vehicles, were spotted patrolling downtown Zamboanga since the bombings. The first bomb, planted under a parked mini-van along Campaner Street. in downtown Zamboanga, exploded around 7.20 p.m., wounding a group of civilians. The powerful blast destroyed the van completely and damaged two small buildings nearby. A second explosion 30 minutes later ripped through the second floor of a three-storey building in Climaco Street just 50 meters away from the main police headquarters. No group claimed responsibility for the explosions, but military and police blamed the bombings to the Abu Sayyaf group, tagged in previous attacks in the south that killed and wounded hundreds of people the past decade. Last week, security forces arrested here an Abu Sayyaf bomb-maker Alex Alvarez, who is blamed for the series of bombings since 2002 that killed dozens of people, including a US soldier participating in an anti-terror training with Filipino troops. Authorities suspect the attacks were in retaliation for his arrest. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Sulu? |
| Posted by: BigEd 2005-08-12 14:01 |