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| Southeast Asia |
| Two Al-Qaida-Linked Militants Killed in Philippine Clash |
| 2015-02-16 |
| [AnNahar] Two members of an Al-Qaeda-linked group were killed in festivities with troops in the southern Philippines on Sunday, a military spokeswoman said. Three soldiers and two Lions of Islam were maimed in the fighting that erupted before dawn in the jungles of Basilan ...Basilan is a rugged, jungle-covered island in the southern Philippines. It is a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, bandidos, and maybe even orcs. Most people with any sense travel with armed escorts... island, Captain Rowena Muyuela told AFP. Sunday's encounter was part of continuing offensives to dislodge Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... Death Eaters from the island, she said. The Abu Sayyaf, set up with seed money from Al-Qaeda in the early 1990s, has been blamed for many of the deadliest krazed killer attacks in the Philippines, including the 2004 Molotov cocktailing of a ferry on Manila Bay that claimed more than 100 lives. The group, mainly based in Moslem-populated areas of the south, has also been involved in high-profile kidnappings of foreign tourists and Christian missionaries. In a separate operation elsewhere in the south, 44 police commandos were killed in festivities with other Moslem guerrilla groups last month. They were on a mission to catch two top krazed killers, Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir and Filipino Abdul Basit Usman. The FBI has said DNA analysis indicates Zulkifli was probably killed. Usman escaped. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |