ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 29, 2014) – Abu Sayyaf rebels attacked a marine post sparking a gun battle that wounded 3 people in Patikul town in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, police said on Saturday.
Police said rebels attacked the marine post in the village of Bungkaung and a firefight erupted that left three civilians wounded. Senior Superintendent Abraham Orbita, the provincial police chief, said the rebels harassed soldiers from the 22nd Marine Company.
“An undetermined number of armed men, believed to be Abu Sayyaf, harassed the elements of the 22nd Marine Company under the Marine Battalion Landing Team 2, manning the Bungkaung detachment in Patikul town.”
“The firefight lasted for almost 50 minutes which resulted to the wounding of three civilians Alnajir Suhaili, Abdulmain Jamasali and Milding Amil,” Orbita told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
It was not immediately known who shot the civilians, but marine posts are near civilian areas in Patikul, a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf. There was no statement from the local mayor about the attack or why the military failed to detect the rebel assault.
The Abu Sayyaf, founded in 1991 by Ustadz Abdurajak Janjalani in Basilan province, has been blamed for the spate of terrorism and ransom kidnappings in the southern Philippines. Many of its members now are young men and sons and relatives of original Abu Sayyaf fighters who had been fighting for a separate Islamic state in the country.
Janjalani was killed in 1998 in a firefight with policemen in Basilan and his younger brother Khadaffy took over the Abu Sayyaf, but he too, was slain in 2006 in Sulu’s Patikul town. His death fragmented the Abu Sayyaf into several factions with different leaders who largely resorted to kidnappings to raise funds for the purchase of weapons. (Mindanao Examiner)
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