3 suspected Abu Sayyaf men killed in military bombing in Sulu

ZAMBOANGA City, Philippines—Three suspected gunmen were killed during a military bomb run in an area of Indanan, Sulu, against the Abu Sayyaf and suspected Jemaah Islamiyah members early morning Sunday, authorities said.

Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, police director in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said OV-10 Air Force planes rained bombs on Mt. Tukay in Barangay (village) Karawan starting around 6:30 a.m.

“The target was the group of Akmadul Jumdail alias Doc Abu and JI members Marwan and Mauwiyah,” Latag said by phone.

Colonel Jose Johriel Cenabre, deputy commander for Marines operation of the Naval Forces in Western Mindanao, said Marine soldiers had recovered the bodies of the slain Abu Sayyaf members from the area where the bombs were dropped.

Cenabre said four assorted firearms were also recovered from the same area. These consisted of two M16 rifles, an M14 assault rifle and a rocket launcher.

Cenabre said sporadic clashes were still ongoing and that details were scant as of Sunday afternoon.

Latag said that based on information reaching them, the Abu Sayyaf also suffered injuries but the actual number was not clear yet.

He said he had no information on casualties from the government side.

Latag said the Sulu police force had been placed on high alert due to the clashes in Karawan.

The Karawan air strike took place barely three days after the military ended a similar campaign in Zamboanga Sibugay, which resulted in the fall of an alleged camp of suspected kidnap leader Waning Abdusalam.

During a visit here last week, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Eduardo Oban said the military’s campaign against lawlessness would continue.

The Sibugay campaign was conducted after a series of ambushes that Moro gunmen had staged in Alicia and Payao towns, which killed four soldiers and three policemen; and the clash in Al-Barka, Basilan, in which 19 soldiers had died.

Both the Basilan and the Zamboanga Sibugay encounters raised concerns about the future of the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which admitted to the involvement of its forces in some of the incidents – including the Al-Barka clash.

Jesuit priest Albert Alejo, a well-known peace advocate based here, cited the need for the military and the MILF to review recent incidents to ensure that ordinary soldiers and guerrillas would have a clear grasp of existing mechanisms designed to prevent hostilities that could endanger the peace process.

“It is possible that only those in the higher levels knew that there are mechanisms in place. It is possible that ordinary troops are not aware of them,” Alejo said.

He said a crash course on the mechanisms of the peace process might actually be needed by those in lower levels of both organizations.

Originally posted at 03:04 pm | Sunday, October 30, 2011