Troops battle Sayyafs in Sulu

SULU – Government forces continue its hunt for Abu Sayyaf militants following a series of clashes recently in the southern Muslim province of Sulu, officials said.

Three Abu Sayyaf militants and a soldier were killed in fierce fighting last Thursday that also left 10 other infantrymen wounded, according to Lt. Col. Gerry Besana, a spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command.

He said members of the 32nd Infantry Battalion under Lt. Col. Ronaldo Mateo battled some 60 militants led by Hajan Sawadjaan in Patikul town and that the fighting lasted for 2 hours that left a still undetermined number of enemy casualties.

Besana said the fighting continued the next day in the town of Indanan where 3 militants were slain, but soldiers only recovered one body that had been identified as that of Pakam Sappari.

He said Sappari was a skilled sea navigator identified with various Abu Sayyaf sub-leaders, including Alden Bagade, involved in several kidnapping activities.

Security forces continue to hunt down Abu Sayyaf militants. It was unknown whether soldiers clashed with militants holding nearly a dozen, mostly foreign hostages, held captive in Sulu, one of 5 provinces under the Muslim autonomous region.

Just recently, troops and police commandos raided an Abu Sayyaf hideout in the village called Pang in Sulu’s Kalingalang Caluang town after receiving reports the militants and their hostage, a seven-year old Muslim girl, were spotted in the area. But the Abu Sayyaf fighters managed to escape with their victim.

Seven Abu Sayyaf militants seized the girl, whose surname is Astah, in the village of Himba in Tandubas Island in Tawitawi province, also in the autonomous region, on June 25 and shot and wounded her mother before escaping.