2 Sayyaf gunmen killed in Jolo clash

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Two suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits were killed yesterday in a gun battle with government troops in Panamao, Sulu, the military said.

A detachment of Marines, the Marine Battalion Landing Team 4 (MBLT), encountered a group of Abu Sayyaf rebels in Barangay Su triggering a firefight that left two of the bandits dead and one soldier wounded, Task Force Comet chief Brig. Gen. Alexander Aleo said.

The wounded soldier, who was not identified, was immediately flown to a military hospital in Asturias, Jolo for treatment.

Combined forces from the Army and Marines under Task Force Comet have been scouring the jungles of Sulu in search for the three Indonesian seamen snatched by Abu Sayyaf gunmen last April.

The Abu Sayyaf is a small group of Islamic militants linked by the US and Philippine governments to the al-Qaeda network. It has been blamed for the country’s worst bombings and a spate of high profile abductions since 2000.

Aleo said the bandits are still holding Ahmad Resmiyadi, the Indonesian skipper of a Malaysian-registered tugboat, who along with two other Indonesian sailors was snatched by the Abu Sayyaf near Mataking Island off Palau in Sabah, Malaysia last April.

The two Indonesian sailors were later rescued by pursuing government troops.

"Operations have been going on. Our forces under the 3rd Marine Brigade are (now) in hot pursuit," Aleo said.

Last Tuesday, the Navy’s anti-terror unit seized 42 sacks of explosive chemicals and assorted high-powered firearms during an amphibious raid in Pilas island, about five nautical miles south off Basilan.

Philippine Navy chief Vice Adm. Ernesto de Leon, in presenting before the media the huge haul of explosives, said the seized explosives belonged to the Abu Sayyaf who managed to escape during the raid by naval forces under Commodore Rufino Lopez Jr. — Roel Pareño, AFP