ZAMBOANGA CITY – Security forces have killed 3 Abu Sayyaf rebels, including their leader, in a raid on their hideout before dawn Sunday in the restive province of Basilan in southern Philippines, a military spokesman said.
Captain Roy Trinidad said troops swooped down on a village called Lower Sinangkapan in Tuburan town and killed Abdulhasaan Tanadjalun and two of his followers in a fierce 30-minute firefight that left three soldiers wounded.
Tanadjalun, tagged as behind the spate of attacks on military and police targets in the province, was the leader of the so-called Urban Terror Group of the Abu Sayyaf, according to Trinidad.
The rebel leader was so notorious that authorities branded him “bullet” because of the number of soldiers and policemen he killed in Basilan, one of 5 provinces under the Muslim autonomous region.
“The Urban Terror Group, also called Anak Yatim or Orphans of Martyrs, has been involved in the killing of military and police personnel, and extortion activities,” Trinidad said.
He said troops under Colonel Rolando Joselito Bautista, commander of an anti-terror task force, tracked down Tanadjalun following a tip off from his relatives and villagers of the rebels’ hideout.
Trinidad said the raiders also recovered weapons, improvised explosives, grenades and cell phones from Tanadjalun’s hideout. He said other followers of the slain rebel leader managed to escape and this allowed soldiers to recover the bodies of the Abu Sayyaf fighters.
Basilan is a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf which is fighting for the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in the South. The rebel group has recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. (Mindanao Examiner)
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