| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Southeast Asia | |
| Philippine troops occupy MILF base | |
| 2011-10-28 | |
| Philippine troops have occupied a Muslim rebel base in the southern province of Zamboanga Sibugay following days of fierce fighting that killed and wounded dozens on both sides, officials said on Thursday. Soldiers have recovered an M60 machine gun left behind by rebels under Wanning Abdusalam, who is believed to be behind recent kidnappings and terrorism in Mindanao Island. But there was no evidence of Abdusalam or his group, even though military commanders insisted that the rebel leader had been injred in the fighting. General Raymundo Ferrer, commander of troops in Mindanao, said they have destroyed Abdusalam’s base. Soldiers were also searching for arms reported hidden by rebels in the local marshlands during their escape. He said, "We have occupied Waning Abdusalam’s fortified structures and our focus right now is clearing the area of unexploded mines and searching the mangrove where it is reported that they hastily dumped their firearms. Efforts are also being exerted to locate the wounded criminals who may have slipped the cordon during the night." Abdusalam, a leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front(MILF), which is currently negotiating with Manila, was disowned by his own group on Tuesday following deadly air strikes by the military on a guerilla base on a remote village called Labatan in Payao town. Ferrer said army troops were combing the rebel base for mines and explosives planted by rebels and that a burial site was discovered on Thursday where the bodies of 15 rebels had been buried. The military earlier said that two soldiers and six rebels were killed in the clashes and 40 MILF gunmen and four army troopers were also injured in three days of fighting. There were no reports about Abdusalam but another security official said he could still be in the town. He said, "We could not move freely (in the camp) since our EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal team) has to mark first the safe areas where we can pass through. The area is so defensible and lined with mines that you have to admire the ground troops for their steadfast determination to regain the territory from the lawless group." "The safe haven of kidnapping operations and terroristic activities in Zamboanga Sibugay has fallen. We have reestablish our authority in this part of Payao, and we owe it to the joint forces – our army, air force, navy and the police – who fought long and hard." The military also blamed the rebels for a series of attacks in Zamboanga Sibugay last week that killed 8 soldiers and policemen. 19 soldiers were also slain by the MILF fighters in an intense battle recently in Basilan province after troops were sent on a test mission to a rebel stronghold in the town of Al-Barka to arrest a rebel leader Dan Asnawi who is accused as behind the series of kidnappings.
| |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 Seems to me that Olongapo was at one time a functioning MILF base........then the Navy left. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2011-10-28 22:36 |