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| Southeast Asia |
| Full Alert Following Report Of Abu Sayyaf Fleeing the Philippines |
| 2002-12-08 |
| KOTA KINABALU, Dec 8 (Bernama) -- The multi-agency security operation in the east coast of Sabah has been put on high alert following a report from the southern Philippines that at least 10 members of the Abu Sayyaf have fled their hideout by speedboat and are heading for Sabah. Fifth Infantry Brigade Commander Brig-Jen Datuk Muhamad Yasin Yahya said today that the security forces had been stopping every boat crossing the country's maritime border. "We are checking every boat but from the report we have received so far, there ware no indications that members of the group have slipped into our waters...we are monitoring the situation closely," he said when contacted here. The report from Zamboanga claimed that the 10 had sneaked out of Patikul town on Jolo island in recent days to flee a military offensive on the island, which is a stronghold of an armed group that staged the hostage-taking incident on Sipadan and Pandanan islands in April and September 2000 respectively. The report claimed that some of the Sipadan hostage-takers were also in the group that fled Jolo. Following the two kidnapping, the security forces launched "Ops Pasir", an integrated security operation led by the military, in October 2000 to secure the waters from Kudat in the north right down to Semporna in the state's southeast. It mainly involved the deployment of troops and logistics to previously unguarded remote islands. Muhamad Yasin said: "We are on alert...the navy, the police, the army have stepped up patrols in the area." |
| Posted by:Anonymous |
| #2 Darn near impossible to find them - its over 200kms between Jolo and Tambisan in Sabah - with dozens of little islands and reef-areas to hine out. The Sibutu Passage is a major pirate area and these guys could just mingle in there. |
| Posted by: Jack 2002-12-09 10:02:39 |
| #1 These guys beat it yesterday, in a speedboat - the implication is that they were traveling fast. They haven't been caught yet, so that means the Malays probably missed them. |
| Posted by: Fred 2002-12-08 19:31:53 |