BASILAN – Three Abu Sayyaf rebels were killed and two army soldiers wounded in a clash that erupted Thursday in the restive province of Basilan in the Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao, officials said.
Officials said security forces were pursuing two of the Abu Sayyaf most notorious leaders, Puruji Indama and Nurhasan Jamiri, in Tipo-Tipo town when it encountered the rebels and killing 3 of them, but the fighting also injured two soldiers.
“At least three Abu Sayyaf members were killed and two soldiers wounded in the clash in Tipo-Tipo and the operation is continuing in Basilan province,” Marine Capt. Maria Rowena Muyuela, a spokeswoman for the Western Mindanao Command, told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
According to Capt. Franco Salvador Suelto, of the 1st Infantry Division, troops were scouring the town’s hinterlands where the group of Indama and Jamiri fled. He said Brig. Gen. Gerardo Barrientos, the regional army commander, ordered troops to intensify the campaign against the Abu Sayyaf in the province.
Ensign Chester Ian Ramos said the Naval Forces South under Commo. Reynaldo Yoma also alerted patrol commanders in an effort to prevent the Abu Sayyaf rebels from escaping out of Basilan. The Abu Sayyaf has been largely blamed by authorities for the series of terrorism and ransom kidnappings in the Muslim region. (Mindanao Examiner)
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