ZAMBOANGA CITY – Abu Sayyaf militants have ambushed a group of elite army soldiers sent to hunt down the pro-ISIS group in the southern Filipino province of Sulu.
The weekend fighting erupted on a hinterland village near the town of Parang where members of the Scout Rangers had been deployed. More than a dozen militants opened fire on the soldiers, sparking fierce clashes.
The military’s Western Mindanao Command did not release any report on the fighting, but President Duterte has repeatedly ordered security forces to finish off the Abu Sayyaf whose leaders pledged allegiance to ISIS.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana also ordered the military to finish off the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu province and called on local officials to help fight off violent Islamic extremism.
“We need to finish them off, we need to do it now,” he said during a meeting last month with the governors of the Muslim autonomous region led by Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim at the headquarters of them 6th Infantry Division in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao province.
Sulu Governor Sakur Tan said the provincial government and all 19 municipal mayors are all out in supporting the campaign against the militant group, blamed for the twin suicide bombings of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel cathedral in Jolo town in January that left dozens of casualties, and for two suicide attacks on an army base in Indanan town that killed 8 people and wounded over two dozens more.
Ebrahim said they are addressing the security situation in the Muslim region, especially in Sulu and Basilan, where the Abu Sayyaf is actively operating.
Tan also appealed to both the regional and national governments to help in the local efforts to address poverty in Sulu which he said is a magnet for violent Islamic extremism ideologies.
The military has confirmed that one of two bombers in Indanan town was a local member of the Abu Sayyaf, Norman Lacusa, brainwashed by ISIS.
Wilfred Nasol, regional director of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency in the Muslim autonomous region, also briefed those in the meeting about the 50-year old communist insurgency problems and pro-ISIS groups and terrorists operating in the country, and their propaganda and at the same time outlining the government’s response to these threats, especially addressing Islamic extremism ideology and adapting the so-called National Peace Framework.
Nasol was referring to Duterte’s Executive Order No. 70 which he signed in December last year establishing a “whole-of-nation approach” in ending communist armed conflict through the creation of a national task force that will take the lead in institutionalizing a national peace framework to attain inclusive and sustainable peace through various initiatives.
The whole-of-nation approach, Nasol said, is essential for this peace framework to become workable, effective and beneficial. (Zamboanga Post)
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