ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / June 19, 2014) – At least 40 soldiers and Abu Sayyaf militants were killed and wounded in fierce clashes on Thursday in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, officials said.
Marine Captain Maria Rowena Muyuela, a spokeswoman for the Western Mindanao Command headquarters, said the fighting in the town of Patikul left 7 soldiers and 10 Abu Sayyaf militants killed and at least 24 more soldiers wounded.
She said the fighting erupted when a military patrol ran into a group of militants headed by Abu Sayyaf subleader Hairula Asbang in the village of Buhanginan.
“The fighting started when the Abu Sayyaf group encountered government troops who were conducting patrol operation in the hinterlands of Patikul town,” she told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Muyuela said most of the military casualties were hit by Abu Sayyaf mortar fires in Patikul, a known stronghold of the militant group tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya. She also denied media reports that those killed and wounded in the fighting were members of the US-trained Light Reaction Company.
“All the casualties are regular marine soldiers who were on a patrol mission,” she said.
The Abu Sayyaf is being blamed for the spate of ransom kidnappings in Malaysia’s eastern state of Sabah and is also believed harboring Jemaah Islamiya militants in Sulu, one of five provinces under the Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao. (Mindanao Examiner)
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