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Southeast Asia

Abu Sayyaf man dies in law enforcement operation

2017-10-10

[SUNSTAR.PH] AN ABU Sayyaf bandit and leader of a kidnap-for-ransom-group (KFRG) was killed as the government continued Monday, October 9, its offensive against the bandits. Brigadier General Custodio Parcon Jr. , Joint Task Force Tawi-Tawi commander, identified the fatality as Guro Idzri, alias Commander Idris, a member of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and a kidnap-for-ransom-group cell leader in the province of Tawi-Tawi. Parcon said Idzri was killed when he resisted troops in a law enforcement operation at 7:10 a. m. Sunday at Sitio Suwang Kagang in the village of Pasiagan, Bongao municipality. “When troops are about to serve the warrant of arrest, Idzri fired at them using his caliber .45 pistol prompting our troops to shoot back,” Parcon said. Parcon said Idzri failed to reach the Datu Halun Sakilan Memorial Hospital alive. He said the troops recovered from Idzri’s possession a caliber .45 pistol with ammunition. The firearm was turned over to the police. He said they received report that Idzri was the emerging new leader of the ASG-KFRG cell in the province of Tawi-Tawi. He was also monitored looking for a possible victim to be kidnapped at the construction site of a Diesel power plant in the village of Pahut, Bongao, Tawi-Tawi. Idzri was a follower of slain Sulu-based Abu Sayyaf spokesperson Muamar Askali, alias Abu Rami, and was believed to be involved in the November 5, 2016 kidnapping of German Jurgen Kantner. Troops killed Askali in a clash on April 11 in Bohol, while the ASG beheaded Kantner in February this year.

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Southeast Asia

Abu Sayyaf member arrested, another surrenders

2017-03-22

[SUNSTAR.PH] AN ABU Sayyaf member was apprehended while another voluntarily surrendered during the continuous military operation in the provinces of Basilan and Sulu. Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) information officer Jo-ann Petinglay identified the arrested Abu Sayyaf bandit as Abdul Mushin Nur and the one who surrendered as Absara Mursalin Akbara alias Talin Amsang, 41. Petinglay said Nur, who belongs to the group of Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Furuji Indama, was arrested around 11:30 a. m. Monday, March 20, at Sitio Block 4 in the village of Bohe Pahuh, Ungkaya Pukan, Basilan. She said Nur’s arrest came after a concerned citizen reported to the troops his whereabouts. The Wesmincom information officer said Akbara surrendered to the troops of the Army’s 41st Infantry Battalion around 10 a. m. Sunday at Sitio Palan in the village of Mampallam, Talipao, Sulu. Petinglay said Akbara yielded an M-16 Armalite rifle. He was turned over to the police for the filling of appropriate charges against him. She said Akbara revealed he opted to surrender due to fear that he will be the next target of the military offensives. Akbara said he no longer feels safe as communities have been tipping-off the sanctuaries and homes of Abu Sayyaf members, according to Petinglay. “This is an offshoot of the command's relentless focused military operations against the ASG (Abu Sayyaf Group) inside their strongholds and comfort zones,” Wesmincom Chief Carlito Galvez, Jr. said.

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Southeast Asia

Sahiron hiding in Sulu islands

2005-11-08

ABU Sayyaf commander Radullan Sahiron is hiding in Sulu province, Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Generoso Senga said Monday. This developed as the man police mistook for Sahiron threatened to sue policemen for arresting him over the weekend. "Sahiron is in Sulu. His mass base is there. His bailiwick is there," Senga said in a chance interview with reporters in Camp Aguinaldo military headquarters. On Saturday, police arrested Anthony Gara in Titay town, believing he was the one-armed Abu Sayyaf commander who led the kidnapping of foreign tourists from a diving resort in Malaysia's Sipdadan Island in 2000. Police realized their blunder after an informant close to the bandit group noticed that Gara was missing his left arm. Sahiron's right arm, not his left, was amputated. Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Director General Arturo Lomibao has apologized for falsely announcing Sahiron's arrest, calling it an "unintentional oversight." He said that the man police intelligence officials apprehended was only a "look-alike" of the Abu Sayyaf commander. "My family will not let them off with just an apology. We are seeking help so we can file charges," Gara said in a radio interview. Gara said that at around 4 p.m. Saturday, four uniformed policemen without name plates forcibly took him while he was about to enter his house. "They loaded me inside a van like a pig. They hit me in the head three times," he said, adding that while in detention, his eyes were covered with packaging tape. "Maybe they [police] noticed that my arm was amputated, that's why they arrested me. They said my face was similar [to Sahiron's]," Gara said. Senga said police arrested the Sahiron "look-alike" without coordinating with the military. "Based on my talk with Southern Command commander Lieutenant General Adan, it was an independent operation." President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was the first to announce the "arrest" of Sahiron in her program over government television station NBN. Senga confirmed the alleged arrest late Saturday evening, but he quoted information from police intelligence. Sahiron, who is believed to be the Abu Sayyaf's chief of staff, is wanted for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of 21 Western tourists and Asian workers from a Malaysian resort in April 2000. The hostages were freed after payment of huge ransom believed to have been financed by Libya. Sahiron and current Abu Sayyaf chief Khadaffy Janjalani are among five of the group's leaders wanted by the United States. The U.S. government has offered a five-million-dollar reward for information leading to their arrest and conviction, and has placed Abu Sayyaf on its list of terrorist organizations. The Philippine government has also raised a reward for their capture. Washington has deployed American troops to the southern Philippines to train and arm Filipino soldiers battling Muslim militants and provided covert assistance in one major effort to capture Sahiron on southern Jolo island early this year. The mistaken arrest showed the difficulty of the war on terrorism, Lomibao said. "The fight against terrorism is a long, tedious and emotional battle," he said. "Along the way, there are hits and misses.

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Southeast Asia

Abu Sayyaf warns MILF against separate peace deal

2005-02-08

THE ABU Sayyaf warned the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) against pursuing peace talks with the government, as they vowed to press on with the fight to establish an independent Islamic state in Mindanao. "To our brothers in the MILF don't waive our nation's honor, dignity, and right even in exchange for the whole world," Abu Solaiman said in a statement he read over GMA Network's radio station dzBB. "No amount of development can pay for our homeland's illegal and immoral occupation or annexation," Solaiman, the group's spokesman, said. Solaiman enjoined the remaining members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) to continue the struggle against "enemies of Islam." "Continue the struggle until we attain either of the two -- victory or martyrdom," Solaiman said. I'll take "martyrdom" for $500, Alex Peace talks between the government and the MILF are set to resume in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia this February. Officials said the agenda includes the "ancestral domain" of the rebels. They're going to bring up Saudi Arabia? Solaiman said the "enemies of Islam" were out to sow division in the MILF, but he said this would work to the Abu Sayyaf's advantage. "They would only be successful in differentiating those within their ranks who prefer to sell their honor, dignity, and right for a measly sum from those noble and brave brothers like those in Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao who chose to fight it out to protect Islam," he said. "The Mindanao equation has developed into a clearer picture, much to our advantage," he said. Solaiman said recent attacks on military installations in Sulu Island by Misuari supporters and Abu Sayyaf members were meant to protest the government's "treacherous ways" in dealing with the MILF. Sounds like Abu Sayyaf is getting worried the MILF is going to sell them out.

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Southeast Asia

Janjalani still in MILF territory

2004-12-06

ABU Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani is still in Central Mindanao, hiding in areas protected by a ceasefire between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Armed Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Efren Abu said Monday. "He (Janjalani) is hiding in MILF territory. That is what I am trying to say," Abu said, as he denied reports that the elusive chieftain of the Al Qaeda-linked group escaped to Malaysia. "The MILF does not allow him to go there but he's there because he knows the military can't just go there," Abu said at a forum hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines. Abu said the MILF, in the process of resuming peace talks with the government, is "cooperating" with the military to capture Janjalani. He said the MILF allowed the military to conduct air raids in its territories in late November to flush out the Abu Sayyaf leader. Last week, Tawi-Tawi Governor Sadikul Sahali claimed to have received information that Janjalani and some 20 of his men had escaped to Mardanas and Mamanok Islands in Malaysia from Sibutu town in Tawi-Tawi.

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Southeast Asia

Janjalani has fled to MILF enclave

2004-11-24

ABU Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani has been forced out of Basilan Island and is in mainland Mindanao seeking cover in areas where a ceasefire between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is in effect, the military said Monday. "Janjalani is in the mainland because he could not hide anymore in Basilan. Another reason he is in the mainland is to take advantage of the ceasefire," Armed Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Efren Abu told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo. "He can always hide in MILF territory because he knows very well that we just cannot go to MILF territory," Abu said. When asked if separatist rebels were coddling Janjalani, Abu said: "I don't want to say that because the MILF has denied links with the Abu Sayyaf group." Abu noted that the MILF helped the government rescue Italian aid worker Andrea Cianferoni from his kidnappers two weeks ago. He said Janjalani's alleged presence in the area prompted the military to launch an air raid in the marshlands of Datu Piang town in Maguindanao province, a known MILF stronghold, over the weekend. Abu said an MILF fighter was confirmed injured in the attack but the military helped him. He also rejected the rebels' allegation that the attack violated the ceasefire because it had the approval of the rebel panel in the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH).

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