Seven marines and seven Abu Sayyaf fighters were killed in a clash in a new U.S.-backed offensive on Sunday aimed at rescuing six foreign and Filipino hostages, and stopping the al-Qaeda-linked gunmen from staging more kidnappings in the country’s south, a military commander said.
The gun battle raged for an hour in a sparsely populated village near coastal Patikul town in Sulu province. Six marines and about 10 gunmen were wounded, marine Col. Jose Cenabre said.
Government troops backed by assault helicopters were hunting down the fleeing militants, who were believed to be led by Jul-Aswan Sawadjaan, an Abu Sayyaf commander accused in the kidnappings of a Jordanian journalist and two European bird watchers who are still being held by the militants.
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One of Sawadjaan’s sons and a minor Abu Sayyaf commander are believed to have been killed in the fire fight, said Col. Cenabre, who heads security forces in Sulu. He said the marines initially had difficulty returning fire because the dozens of militants took cover near a row of houses.
The flag-draped caskets of the slain marines were flown to Manila on Sunday and given military honours at an air force base amid a downpour, the latest military casualties in a battle against Muslim extremists that has dragged on for about two decades. Marine commandant Brig. Gen. Romeo Tanalgo said the battle would continue despite the setback.
The fire fight was part of a new military offensive that started last week and is aimed at rescuing the three foreign captives, who were abducted last year, along with three Filipinos kidnapped separately by the militants in recent weeks, he said.
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Among the Filipino captives was a marine’s wife who worked in a Sulu provincial hospital and was kidnapped two weeks ago.
Although a large number of marines and policemen are involved in the offensive, only small units have been deployed to hunt down the Abu Sayyaf in two jungle encampments in Sulu, said Col. Cenabre. U.S. forces were providing intelligence but were not involved in actual combat, he said.
While Abu Sayyaf abductions still occur, they are far fewer today than the massive kidnappings that terrorized Sulu and outlying provinces in the early 2000s, when the group had many commanders and strong ties with terrorist organisations, including Indonesian-based Jemaah Islamiyah.
U.S.-backed military offensives have crippled the Abu Sayyaf in recent years, but it remains a key security threat. Washington lists the group, which still has about 300 armed fighters, as a terrorist organisation.
Philippine troops and police special forces, meanwhile, killed one of two gunmen who were trying to extort money Saturday from a restaurant in Sulu’s capital town of Jolo, Col. Cenabre added.
Armed with pistols, the two men shot it out with government forces. One was shot in the head and died and the other was captured, he said. He said investigators were trying to determine whether the two had ties with the Abu Sayyaf, which is also notorious for extortion.