ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 28, 2012) – Government troops clashed with Abu Sayyaf militants tied to al-Qaeda on Sunday in the southern Philippines, leaving 5 people dead and 10 soldiers wounded, officials said.
Officials said a team of marines were patrolling the town of Patikul in Sulu province following intelligence reports about the presence of kidnap victims when the fighting occurred.
“The marine company was conducting patrol to verify reports of the presence of kidnap victims in the area. The encounter resulted to three marines killed in action and ten wounded in action,” Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang, a spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command, told regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
He said 2 gunmen were also killed in the fighting and that troops clashed with the group of Abu Sayyaf leader Radullan Sahiron and followers of rebel commander Tahil Sali.
He said Maj. Gen. Rey Ardo, the regional military chief, sent aircrafts and vessels to support soldiers fighting the Abu Sayyaf and to retrieve the bodies of those killed and wounded in the fierce clashes.
“General Ardo immediately ordered the dispatch of all available air and naval assets to support the engaged troops and to ensure the KIAs are recovered and the MIAs brought to the nearest medical facility,” Cabangbang said, referring to the slain and wounded soldiers.
Cabangbang did not release the identities of the kidnap victims reported in Patikul, but among those believed to be in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf are Australian adventurer Warren Rodwell, 57, who was kidnapped in December last year from his seaside home in the town of Ipil in Zamboanga Sibugay province.
And also two European wildlife photographers Ewold Horn, 52, from Holland; and Lorenzo Vinciguerre, 47, from Switzerland, who were also kidnapped earlier this year in Tawi-Tawi province. The Abu Sayyaf is still holding a Japanese man and three Filipinos in Sulu.
Philippine authorities have imposed a news blackout on the kidnappings of the foreigners, although there were reports that negotiations for the safe release of Rodwell and the other foreigners are going on.
Just last month, the Abu Sayyaf freed a kidnapped Chinese man Jian Luo, 48, in Zamboanga City after his family paid some P5 million ransoms. His compatriot Jampong Lin-Yuankai, 38, was later rescued following a gun battle in a village also in Zamboanga City.
The two men- who are natives of Guangdong province and are engaged in buying and selling of manganese and other minerals – were kidnapped by followers of Abu Sayyaf leader Khair Mundos in Kabasalan town near where Rodwell was snatched by five men disguised as policemen.
Mundos is wanted both by the Philippine and US authorities for his role in the transfer of al-Qaeda funds to the Abu Sayyaf which had been used to carry out terror attacks in Mindanao and other parts of the country.
According to the US Rewards for Justice Program, Mundos is a key leader and financier of the Abu Sayyaf. He was arrested in May 2004 and confessed to having arranged the transfer of funds from al-Qaeda to Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadafy Janjalani. But in February 2007, Mundos escaped from the Kidapawan Provincial Jail in North Cotabato province.
It was unknown whether Mundos was also involved in Rodwell kidnapping. The former Australian soldier was last reported being held by the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan province near Sulu. (Mindanao Examiner)
20