Almost 20 soldiers were wounded Thursday morning in an ambush and roadside bomb attack by suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants in a southern Philippines Abu Sayyaf stronghold.
Col. Rolando Joselito Bautista, commander of the army's 104th Brigade, said troops from the 18th Infantry Battalion were on patrol in the hinterland town of Tipo Tipo island province of Basilan at around 9:45 a.m. when gunmen opened fire on them before an improvised explosive device went off.
Eight soldiers suffered shrapnel wounds in the original attack, and ten more were wounded in running gunbattles as troops pursued the suspected Abu Sayyaf members deep into the surrounding jungle.
Shortly after the attack, helicopters took off from the Edwin Andrew Air Base in nearby Zamboanga City – a predominantly Christian city in the Philippines' majority Muslim south - to evacuate the wounded personnel and to provide air support to troops in hot pursuit of the assailants.
The attack came two days after a soldier and four civilians were wounded in another bomb attack in the commercial district of Cotabato City, the seat of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
On Wednesday night, security forces arrested a suspected Abu Sayyaf member, identified as Edwin Sawaldi Y Siarot and also known as Nur Hassan, in Zamboanga City.
With the approaching one-year anniversary of a siege on Zamboanga, which left nearly 200 people dead and 120,000 homeless, security forces are on heightened alert in the wake of threats from unspecified groups.
Inspector Dahlan Samuddin, the regional police spokesperson, said the suspect – who faces charges of kidnapping and illegal detention with ransom - was nabbed by combined military and police forces at around 6:10 p.m. near a local port.
Hassan is the latest suspected Abu Sayyaf member to be captured.
In June, authorities arrested four militants including top official Khair Mundos, who had a bounty of over $27,000 (P1.2 million) on his head.
Since 1991, the Abu Sayyaf -- armed with mostly improvised explosive devices, mortars and automatic rifles -- has carried out bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and extortions in a self-determined fight for an independent Islamic province in the Philippines.
It is notorious for beheading victims after ransoms have failed to be paid for their release.
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