Special troops pooled to rescue remaining Sayyaf hostages

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Highly trained special troops were pooled in a mission to rescue the remaining hostages of the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu, a senior military official revealed yesterday.

Lt. Gen. Rustico Guerrero, commander of the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom), said the troops from various specialized units in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) were recruited to form a team to rescue the remaining hostages of the Abu Sayyaf, including foreigners.

Guerrero revealed the killing of seven soldiers and 24 others was unlucky and unfortunate, considering they were hit by a wayward mortar from the bandit group.

He said they were operatives of the Joint Special Operation Group (JSOG) on the rescue mission.

“I could not divulge the units involved but nevertheless we are pooling our resources from the army, air force and navy as well as the support of the Philippine National Police (PNP),” Guerrero said.

Guerrero declined to discuss in detail the units involved and the rescue mission, but said there is a continuing effort to stop the Abu Sayyaf from kidnapping and to ensure the rescue of the hostages.

“We are trying our very best in different ways to get them out of the hands of the kidnappers,” Guerrero said.

“We want to take a look seriously at this kidnapping business, we want to put a stop at this, otherwise we will see more of this if we will not do something against this,” he added.

Guerrero said there are about 10 hostages being held captive by the different factions of the Abu Sayyaf, and most of the victims are foreigners.

Based on previous reports, the Abu Sayyaf are believed to be holding captive Europeans Elwold Horns and Lorenzo Vinceguerre, Germans Stefan Viktor Okonek and Herike Diesen; two Malaysians and four Filipinos who were separately abducted since 2012 and last May.

The victims are separately held by different factions of the Abu Sayyaf under Radullan Sahiron, Guerrero said.

There were reports that one of the Filipino captives, Joselito Gonzales, a construction laborer, was killed during the encounter Thursday.

Guerrero said they have yet to confirm the report even as the body count from the encounter revealed an Abu Sayyaf militant was identified by the villagers.

Guerrero said the heavy casualties they incurred was a result of the fire tactics of the Abu Sayyaf, who unleashed a heavy volume of rifle grenades and mortars in many directions, hitting the troops indirectly.

A military commander revealed the Abu Sayyaf is getting munitions from different sources, paying for them by ransom proceeds from their kidnapping activities.

Guerrero said they are now tracing the sources.

Meanwhile, the military reported no displacement of civilians from Barangay Buhanginan in Patikul town during the recent encounter.

Guerrero said they have coordinated with the provincial government that assured them they will take care of the villagers displaced by the fighting.