Aquino orders military: Crush Abu Sayyaf

An incensed President Benigno Aquino III yesterday ordered the military to crush the Abu Sayyaf bandit group that killed seven Marines and beheaded or mutilated five of them in last week’s fighting.

Careful of religious sensitivities, troops hunting down the al Qaeda-linked militants on the predominantly Muslim island province of Sulu were under orders to avoid disrupting the holy month of Ramadan, according to Lieutenant General Raymundo Ferrer, the military commander of Western Mindanao.

Government forces were focusing their hunt and assaults far from Muslim communities, Ferrer said.

Seven Marines were killed, including five who were found beheaded and mutilated, and 26 were wounded on Thursday when they tried to capture two Abu Sayyaf leaders in an assault on their jungle camp in Barangay (village) Panglahayan in Sulu’s mountainous town of Patikul.

At least 13 Abu Sayyaf bandits were killed while dozens of others, believed led by Radulan Sahiron and Isnilon Hapilon, withdrew deep into the woods and were being pursued by troops, according to the military.

After honoring the dead Marines, the President ordered troops to make sure the Moro bandits are brought to justice. “This terrorist group should not be allowed to think that it can challenge the whole state,” he said in a statement.

Prime target

Aquino warned that the Abu Sayyaf had once again become a prime government target. “Mark my words, to those of you who perpetrated this atrocity, know that you are now No. 1 on my radar,” he said.

A military board of inquiry has been formed to check possible lapses in tactics or procedures that led to last week’s debacle in Sulu.

Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Cabangbang, spokesperson of the Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom), said the board of inquiry, which convened on Sunday, “will consider all angles” and find out if procedures were dutifully observed.”

“If there were violations, why did it happen?” Cabangbang said.

The board is made up of representatives from the Armed Forces of the Philippines headquarters and the Wesmincom.

Abu Sayyaf trap?

Suspicions arose that the Marines literally fell into the Abu Sayyaf trap and heightened when five of the seven slain soldiers had been mutilated and beheaded.

Even the military had suspected “failure of appreciation of terrain and deficiency in the intelligence assessment, especially on the aspect of the number of bandits,” Cabangbang said.

For example, he said, Abu Sayyaf leader Radulan Sahiron is known to have about 30 followers armed with high-powered firearms, including M-203 grenade launchers.

Another theory, Cabangbang said, was that the seven slain soldiers had sacrificed themselves to save the majority of the operating team. “There’s a possibility that they had been badly injured earlier and decided to sacrifice themselves to ensure the rest of the platoon members will survive,” he said.

He said this theory came out after a team of investigators found that the seven soldiers, led by 2nd Lieutenant Michael Balabad, had taken the lower and middle positions on a sloping terrain during the battle, suggesting that they were on the frontline of the unit.

“Balabad and the others … might have provided cover to ensure the rest of the 27 members of the platoon could withdraw safely,” Cabangbang said. With reports from Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao, and AP