ZAMBOANGA, Philippines, 8 December 2003 — A top guerrilla commander suspected of involvement in the 2001 kidnapping of Western tourists from a Malaysian resort was wounded and captured in a clash with soldiers in the southern Philippines yesterday.
Galib Andang, also known as Commander Robot, the leader of a faction of the Abu Sayyaf extremist group, was wounded in the leg during a gunfight in Indanan town on Jolo, according to the island’s military chief, Col. Alexander Yapching, and armed forces spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero.
Yapching said the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, notorious for kidnappings and beheadings of hostages, suffered casualties, but did not give other details.
The suspect is expected to be brought before President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in Manila today, Lucero said.
Andang is one of the Abu Sayyaf commanders suspected of involvement in the April 2000 kidnapping of 21 people, about half of them Western tourists — two Finns, three Germans, three French and two South Africans — from the Malaysian resort of Sipadan. The hostages were released after months in captivity, reportedly in exchange for millions of dollars in ransom.
The Abu Sayyaf has also been blamed for the killing of two American hostages.
The Abu Sayyaf is a group of militants branded as terrorists by Washington and Manila and said to have links with the Al-Qaeda network of terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden. Andang is the most senior leader of the Abu Sayyaf accounted for by the military since the killing of another leader of the group, Mujib Susukan, in February this year.
