By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines
The Philippines army chief said Tuesday that there would be no let up in military operations against the militant Abu Sayyaf group in the country's Muslim south, following the deaths of two soldiers Friday.
"We will continue to run after the Abu Sayyaf," Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief General Emmanuel Bautista told troops while visiting a hospital in the predominantly Christian city to present the gold cross medal to two soldiers wounded in Friday's attack. "There's no let-up in Sulu or Basilan," he added.
Government troops have been battling Abu Sayyaf extremists in its strongholds of Sulu, Basilan and Jolo after the rebel group launched an attack that left the two soldiers dead, and 29 others wounded. Five rebels also died in the firefight.
Basilan, Sulu and Jolo are islands in the Sulu Archipelago, just off the southern coast of Zamboanga Peninsula in the western part of the Muslim autonomous region of Mindanao. Abu Sayyaf - a Muslim militant group whose name means "Bearer of the Sword" in Arabic - is suspected of conducting kidnap raids on the Philippines and Malaysian mainland from the islands.
Friday's military operation was aimed at neutralizing the group, which is also blamed for bombings and extortion. Around 200 soldiers from the Army's 104th Infantry Brigade and Joint Special Operations Group were conducting a strike operation to apprehend Abu Sayyaf commander Furuji Indama when the firefight erupted.
Indama is suspected to be behind kidnappings and attacks at rubber plantation in Maluso town, also in the country's south. He has a 3.3 million peso (US$75,000) bounty on his head and is suspected to be part of a group that killed 14 marines, beheading 10 of them, in an ambush in 2007.
Most recently, he is believed to be responsible for abducting a female Chinese tourist and a Filipina worker from a Malaysian dive resort around 260 miles (480 kilometers) from Jolo.
A Malaysia news agency report Tuesday said that discussions had been held between Malaysian and Philippines intelligence to find the best way to release Gao Hua Yuan, 29 and Marcy Dayawan, 40. Security officials believe they were taken to either Tawi‒Tawi or Sulu - two islands neighboring Jolo.
Kidnappers have demanded US$11 million (P500 million pesos) for the Chinese tourist’s release.
Reacting to reports that Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) commanders and their fighters had aided elements of the Abu Sayyaf in the recent fight, Bautista said Tuesday that they have already talked with the group through ground mechanisms.
The MILF signed a March 27 peace agreement with the government, which grants Muslim areas greater political autonomy in exchange for an end to armed rebellion, but other rebel factions - including Abu Sayyaf - continue to fight on. Any suggestion that MILF factions were involved in the fight would suggest a breakdown in the peace process.
"We have mechanisms and it’s working," Bautista said, referring to the joint ceasefire mechanism that both sides signed up to in the agreement.
Bautista, however, admitted that sometimes MILF assistance to the Abu Sayyaf cannot be avoided because often the fighters - "especially those operating in Basilan" - share family ties.
"We know that MILF is an irregular force so it's so hard to control their people, sometimes they have relatives [with the Abu Sayyaf group]," he said.
MILF Vice Chairman for Political Affairs Ghazali Jaafar said earlier Tuesday that four MILF fighters were among the dead.
"The MILF central committee has yet to determine how and why their fighters in Barangay Baguindan, Tipo-tipo were among those attacked by the military," Jaafar said.
According to Jaafar, the MILF-Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces only retaliated after government forces attacked them.
Jaafar, however, said that he believed the incident would not affect the peace agreement, adding that "The MILF will hold its own investigation into the incident."
Fighting between the government and Abu Sayyaff has been so fierce in some regions in recent days that relief missions have been sent to help those evacuated.
“We’re sending off 400 food packs in aid for 264 families as validated by our volunteers from the area,” Ramil Masukat, head of the Humanitarian Emergency and Action Response Team's regional disaster risk reduction management office, said Tuesday.
After the April 11 encounter, civilians from the villages of Silangkong and Baguindan fled to safety, taking refuge with relatives in neighboring villages.
The Abu Sayyaf is fighting for an Islamic state in Mindanao and has been blamed for some of the worst "terror" attacks in the Philippines' history.
It has been linked to Al-Qaeda and has beheaded hostages in the past. In December 2013 it kidnapped Baker Atyani, a Jordanian journalist. He was freed in January this year.
Abu Sayyaf also kidnapped Americans Guillermo Sobero and Martin and Gracia Burnham from the Dos Palmas resort on the island of Palawan in 2001.
They were brought to Jolo island, where Sobero was later beheaded. Martin was shot dead during a military rescue operation in 2002 while Gracia was unhurt and rescued.
*Anadolu Agency corespondent Roy Ramos contributed to this story from the Philippines
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