ZAMBOANGA CITY?The police director of Sulu province was killed in a fire fight Thursday afternoon between Sulu policemen and Abu Sayyaf bandits.

Senior Supt. Julasirim Kasim, his brother Rosalin, a police trainee, and two other police officers were killed during the clash that started at about 1 p.m. at the boundaries of Barangays Kulasi and Bulabog in Maimbung town, Sulu, according to Chief Supt. Bensali Jabarani, police chief of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Police have yet to find out if this was the same bandit group holding Italian aid worker Eugenio Vagni hostage, Chief Supt. Nicanor Bartolome, spokesperson of the Philippine National Police, said at a briefing in Manila.

Big loss

Bartolome said Kasim had been at the frontline of the fight against the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu, and was a great loss to the PNP.

Jabarani echoed this sentiment, saying: ?It?s a big loss for all of us. I really feel bad and sad about [Kasim?s death].

?His dedication to duty cannot be overestimated. I am shocked by what happened.?

Jabarani said Kasim was instrumental in the capture of at least six Abu Sayyaf camps since the renewed operation against the bandit group was launched.

Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan, who heads Task Force ICRC, said five of the six Abu Sayyaf camps that fell to government?s hands were seized on May 6 alone.

Shortly before the camps were seized, Kasim told the Inquirer that Sulu police were also able to capture one of the biggest camps of the bandit group led by Albader Parad in Barangay Bunot in Indanan town.

He said there were fresh graves in the camp.

Searching for Vagni

?We will not rest until we get Vagni and end this problem [of kidnapping] hounding our province,? he said then.

Earlier Thursday, Kasim told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a text message that he was heading to Maimbung to check on the reported sighting of heavily armed men there.

Jabarani said the deaths of Kasim and his men comprised the first loss of the PNP in connection with efforts to rescue Vagni.

Supt. Jose Bayani Gucela, spokesperson of the Western Mindanao police?s directorate for integrated police operations, said the other police officers killed were SPO3 Asbi Jammahari and one identified only as SPO3 Abdurajan.

The death toll included four bandits, whose bodies have been recovered along with a number of firearms, Jabarani said. He said four other police officers were wounded.

Bartolome also said four high-powered firearms?M14, M16 and Garand rifles, and an M203 grenade launcher?were recovered from the scene of the fire fight.

Hour-long battle

Kasim, 55, was leading a team of policemen in a clearing operation for the military in connection with efforts to rescue Vagni when they were fired upon by the bandits, per Jabarani?s account.

Kasim?s team returned fire, and a full-blown clash ensued.

?They fought it out for an hour,? Bartolome told reporters.

Vagni, a volunteer of the International Committee of the Red Cross, is the third and last of three ICRC aid workers still in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf.

He, along with Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba and Swiss Andreas Notter, was kidnapped on Jan. 15 just outside the Sulu provincial capitol after visiting a water sanitation project.

Lacaba was released on April 2, and Notter, 16 days later.

An Inquirer informant said Vagni was to have been released by the bandits on May 6, but that power play between the military and the police in the area got in the way.

?They could not agree on who should be the first to secure Vagni,? the source said.

The 62-year-old Italian is suffering from hypertension and needs surgery for a hernia.

Pursuit

In Manila, Bartolome said PNP Director General Jesus Verzosa had ordered all security forces in Sulu to pursue the bandits that engaged Kasim?s team.

The directive was issued to the ARMM, the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations in Western Mindanao, and the Task Force ICRC, Bartolome said.

?Right now, in coordination with other security forces in the area, an operation is being conducted,? he said.

Sulu Governor Tan ordered the rescue operation for Vagni last month, after negotiations with the bandits for the Italian?s release failed and as his health continued to deteriorate in the jungle.

According to Alain Aeschlimann, the Asia-Pacific operations chief of the ICRC, Vagni was able to call his family last week.

?As ever, we remain very worried about Eugenio,? Aeschlimann said in a statement last week. ?We will spare no effort until Eugenio is free and the crisis resolved.?

Another kidnapping

But the wave of kidnappings continued in certain parts of Mindanao.

In a report, The Associated Press quoted Army Col. Ernesto Radanas as saying that gunmen abducted 28-year-old trader Christopher Yap from his family?s warehouse in Maguindanao Thursday.

The area is close to a stronghold of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), but it was not clear whether the rebel group was involved.

MILF spokesperson Eid Kabalu said the group would gather information on the kidnapping and help recover the businessman.