The military stepped up its retaliatory offensive yesterday by killing several Abu Sayyaf militants, including two of the suspects behind the beheading of soldiers last month.Western Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo said troops overran an Abu Sayyaf training camp in the mountain village of Silangkum here where bodies of several Abu Sayyaf gunmen were found. Troops have recovered at least six body counts, including the two leaders who were among the suspects in the beheading of the Marines last month. This does not include those bodies seen littered by the clearing forces, Cedo told a news conference here yesterday. Cedo said yesterdays clash here involved about 80 Abu Sayyaf gunmen. He added that hundreds of troops are pursuing the rebels who survived. The bodies of slain rebels were scattered around the battle scene, he said. The two slain suspects were identified as senior Abu Sayyaf leader Furiji Indama and his brother Umair Indama, whose remains were among those recovered by troops in the rebel camp. Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon said the raiding troops even recovered the M-16 rifle of one of the beheaded Marines. Esperon said Furiji Indama was also a suspect in the killing of Peru-born American tourist Guillermo Sobero, one of three US citizens abducted by the Abu Sayyaf in a Palawan resort in 2001.
Troops also fired 105 mm Howitzer shells early yesterday at suspected Abu Sayyaf positions near Ungkaya Pukan and the nearby townships of Sumisip and Tipo-Tipo but there was no immediate report of casualties, officials said.
At least 57 soldiers and rebels were killed in the offensive, which started at dawn Saturday and raged until the early afternoon.
| That's a costly battle. |