Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !

Southeast Asia

5 Filippino troops killed, no cease-fire

2005-03-12

Five soldiers were killed and four others wounded in the latest military clashes with Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) renegades and their Abu Sayyaf allies in Sulu. An armored personnel carrier was also damaged in the three-hour fighting in the outskirts of Parang town, said Brig. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala, Sulu military commander. An undetermined number of rebels were also killed in the battle that broke out Thursday near Water Point Lanao Dakula complex, the rebel stronghold seized by troops last week, said Lt. Col. Buenaventura Pascual, Armed Forces spokesman. Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza, Armed Forces Southern Command chief, said troops have been conducting mop-up operations in Lanao Dakula since Tuesday. Meanwhile, police and military agents are investigating whether the arms seized Thursday on a passenger vessel from Manila had been intended for MNLF renegades fighting troops in Jolo. Security forces arrested a suspect who was supposed to pick up the contraband consisting of five M-16 rifles, spare parts and magazines. Police and troops are also tracking down the consignees, who were identified as Roberto and Rodolfo Macapili. Earlier Thursday, five rebels were slain and five others captured in a clash in Patikul town. The military is pressing its campaign to hunt down the rebels who launched an uprising in Jolo on Feb. 7, attacking military outposts and sparking over a week of clashes that left about a hundred soldiers and rebels dead. The uprising was launched by Habier Malik and other suspected followers of former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Nur Misuari, who is detained at Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna on rebellion charges. The MNLF renegades are believed to be allied with the Abu Sayyaf, a kidnapping gang linked by the Philippine and US governments to the al-Qaeda terrorist network of Saudi Arabian dissident Osama bin Laden. President Arroyo has ruled out a ceasefire with MNLF renegades and ordered the military to hunt them down. The military previously said it captured the camps of the MNLF renegades and their Abu Sayyaf allies, but the guerrillas have scattered into small groups and are still resisting the military.

Link

Southeast Asia

Arroyo Rejects Truce With Jolo Gunmen

2005-03-05

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday rejected proposals for a cease-fire in the southern island of Jolo and ordered the military to continue hunting down the gumen blamed for the deaths of more than two dozen soldiers in fierce fighting last week. A Malacañang Palace press statement said the president issued the order upon the recommendation of Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz and the Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Efren Abu. "The will be no letup in our operations to neutralize the remaining leaders and members of the Abu Sayyaf and MNLF renegades," said Brig. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala, the military commander in Jolo. Jolo politicians have proposed for a cease-fire after weeks of fighting believed to have killed more than 100 rebels, most of them loyal to jailed Muslim leader Nur Misuari. Misuari's followers, led by Habier Malik, said they attacked military posts in Jolo on Feb. 7 to avenge the death of a Muslim couple and their 14-year old son. The military had claimed the trio were killed during a clash between government troops and members of extremist Abu Sayyaf group. Officials also said the rebels had planned the attacks to force the government to free Misuari, who is being held in a prison near Manila on rebellion charges. Deputy Director General Vidal Querol of the national police said criminal charges are being prepared against Malik and his men. Aside from the murder charges, the police plan to file arson charges against Malik's group for burning several houses during the attacks in Jolo.

Link

Southeast Asia

Filippinos capture Abu Sayyaf camp

2005-02-25

Philippine troops have captured a major camp of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group, a military commander said Friday. The mountain stronghold of the Muslim extremist group outside Indanan town on southern Jolo island was overrun Thursday by about 400 soldiers from the army's 53rd Infantry Battalion, said Jolo military chief Brig. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala. About 100 Abu Sayyaf defenders broke up into small groups as troops, backed by helicopter gunships firing rockets, assaulted the camp on top of the Budkaha mountain, about 940 kilometers (580 miles) south of Manila, Dema-ala said. He said there were no government casualties. Civilians fleeing the fighting reported seeing some wounded gunmen. The camp "is the symbol of power of the Abu Sayyaf group, which provided sanctuary to lawless elements on Jolo,'' Dema-ala said. The capture of the base "shows the will of the government to assert itself in imposing the laws of the law and the determination of the government to go after violators of the law,'' he said. Treetops cover the mountain hideout from the air. The camp, which could accommodate as many as 1,000 people, is also used for guerrilla training and includes a network of foxholes, trenches and bunkers, Dema-ala said. The military pounded the area with artillery two days earlier to prepare for the assault on the camp, which has been used by Umbra Jumdail, alias Dr. Abu, who was among the Abu Sayyaf leaders involved in the abduction of Western tourists from the Malaysian resort of Sipadan in 2000. The camp is also a sanctuary for local Abu Sayyaf commander Albader Parad, whose gunmen killed three soldiers on security patrol in Indanan on Feb. 19. On Tuesday, Misuari told a group of lawmakers that he had no role in the clashes, calling them retaliatory attacks for alleged army abuses and anti-insurgency operations that left innocent civilians dead. The military claims pro-Misuari rebels were in alliance with the Abu Sayyaf, but Misuari has denied the link.

Link

Southeast Asia

8 Killed in Jolo Clan War

2005-02-02

At least eight people were killed in a week-long gun battle between two feuding Muslim clans in the southern Philippine island of Jolo, officials said yesterday. Officials said the fighting broke out in the town of Luuk on Jan. 24 and sporadic clashes have already killed at least eight people on both sides. It was not immediately known what triggered the violence, but officials said the motive of the fighting was political rivalry as leaders of the protagonists are known politicians in the town. One of them, identified only as Angao, a councilor, was killed in the fighting. "The fighting have already left eight people dead on both sides. We have given the protagonists an ultimatum and we will arrest all of them if they don't lay down their arms and stop fighting," the island's military commander Brig. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala told the Arab News. The skirmishes temporarily stopped on Tuesday after Gen. Dema-ala met with the leaders of the warring groups in Luuk. Troops were also sent to the town and put up checkpoints to prevent the entry of illegal weapons. Blood feud, locally known as "rido", is common in the Muslim world southern Philippines and in many instances, the violence could drag on for years, sometimes even for decades, with the killings targeting every member of a feuding family or clan.

Link

Southeast Asia

Sulu town mayor assassinated

2005-01-26

Gunmen shot dead a town vice mayor and his security aide in the province of Sulu, some 950 kilometers south of Manila, in an attack blamed by the military on family feud. Pata Vice Mayor Adjili Abbas and his bodyguard were killed on Saturday morning outside the official's house. Authorities only reported the incident on Tuesday, but officials said security forces were sent to the town to track down the attackers. "There is an going operation now. Soldiers and policemen were in the town to hunt the assailants," military anti-terror task force commander Brig. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala said. He said Abbas rushed outside his house after hearing burst of gunfire, but was also shot by unidentified assailants. His unidentified bodyguard, who came to help, was also shot dead, Dema-ala said. The motive of the attack was still unknown, but Dema-ala said they were looking at the possibility that a family feud or personal grudge may have sparked the shooting. "There is an investigation, the police are handling that case," he said. It was not immediately known if the Abu Sayyaf group, which is known to actively operate in Sulu, had something to do with the murder.

Link

Southeast Asia

Abu Sayyaf thug killed photojournalist

2004-11-14

A member of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf was identified by witnesses as being behind the latest murder of a journalist in downtown Jolo, the Sulu capital, a military commander said. Brig. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala, head of the anti-terror Task Force Comet, said witnesses had identified the Abu Sayyaf member as having shot dead photojournalist Gene Boyd Lumawag last Friday. Lumawag, 26, was the photo editor of the independent news agency MindaNews based in Davao City. "The witnesses know who the killer is and based on (their) description, we know this (man). He is a member of the Abu Sayyaf," Dema-ala said. Dema-ala said he did not know the motive for Lumawag's killing. Probers, however, said he could have been mistaken as an intelligence agent. Lumawag was shot in the head with a caliber .45 handgun while he was on his way to take a picture of the sunset from the Jolo pier, said Carolyn Arguillas, chairman of MindaNews who was also in Jolo.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-6 More