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| Southeast Asia |
| 10 Abu Sayyaf men die, 2 officers hurt in clash |
| 2017-04-06 |
| [GULFTODAY.AE] At least 10 members of the 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... terror group were killed while 32 soldiers were maimed, including an Army battalion commander and a junior officer, in a clash on the island province of Sulu in restive Mindanao, the military confirmed on Tuesday. Major General Carlito Galvez, the chief of the military’s Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) identified the maimed officers as Lieutenant Colonel William George Cordova, the head of the Army’s 41st Infantry Batttalion and First Lieutenant Joe Mari Landicho. Galvez said the two officers were among the 32 soldiers maimed in an hour-long heavy fighting clash with about 80 Abu Sayyaf murderous Moslems in a mountain village in the town of Talipao, Sulu on Sunday morning. He added Cordova and Landicho suffered minor wounds but one of the soldiers was at death's door with a bullet wound in the head and was immediately airlifted to the military hospital at the Westmincom headquarters in Zamboanga City. Cordova headed a military team immediately dispatched to the mountain village in Talipao after receiving a tip from concerned residents that about 80 murderous Moslems were in the area along with their Filipino and foreign hostages including Indonesian and Vietnamese sailors, according to Galvez. "The Abu Sayyaf enjoyed the advantage of being on higher ground as they fired MO3 grenade launchers at the approaching soldiers," Galvez said but added the soldiers countered by using 105mm howitzers until the |
| Posted by:Fred |