Mindanao clashes kill 2 Abu Sayyaf militants

MANILA: Two sub-leaders of the Daesh-inspired Abu Sayyaf terror group were killed in separate encounters with government forces within 30 minutes of each other on the island province of Sulu in Mindanao, a top military official reported on Friday.

Lieutenant General Corleto Vinluan, the chief the military’s Western Mindanao Command, identified the slain terrorist subleaders as Hatib Manap Binda and Bensio Barahariya who were killed in separate clashes with government forces in the town of Panamao, Sulu.

The two terrorists were killed in firefights with members of the elite Philippine Marines who were conducting combat patrol in Panamao within 30 minutes of each other that were also highlighted by the recovery of high-powered weapons, according to Vinluan.

He said the first encounter started shortly before 6am on Friday, which lasted for 30 minutes and saw the killing of Binda who was let behind by his comrades when they fled.

“Based on our records,” Vinluan said, “Binda was a senior leader of the Abu Sayyaf operating in the municipalities of Panamao, Kalingalan and Caluang in Sulu. He was a member of the Abu Sayyaf since 2002.”

About 30 minutes later, Vinluan said, the Marines encountered another terror group headed by Bensio in another “barangay” (village) in Panamo at about 6:30 am on Friday,

He said Bensio was involved in a series of kidnap-for-ransom activist that victimised a Swiss national and several Indonesian fishermen who were abducted early this year from the island state of Sabah in Malaysia.

The military blamed the Abu Sayyaf and the Maute Group that both pledged allegiance to the Daesh extremists in the Middle East for the siege on Marawi, the capital city of Lanao del Sur province in May 2017.

The siege prompted President Duterte to cut short his state visit to Russia as he imposed martial law over the whole of troubled Mindanao that had been extended at least thrice by the Senate and the House of Representatives.