ZAMBOANGA CITY, 4 August 2006 — About a thousands villagers in the southern island of Jolo have fled their homes as fighting between government troops and Abu Sayyaf rebels raged on, officials said yesterday.
Security forces, backed by US intelligence, are trying to stop Abu Sayyaf and members of Jemaah Islamiyah, Al-Qaeda’s regional franchise, from using the country’s southern islands as bases to train and plot bombings in Southeast Asia.
At least 3 militants were reported killed on Wednesday and two more wounded in the fighting. Five soldiers were also injured in the clash since Tuesday when security forces began the offensive in four hinterland villages in the town of Indanan, said Col. Antonio Supnet, chief of staff the military’s Southern Command in Zamboanga City.
Four rebels were caught trying to slip through a naval blockade, military commanders said as an offensive to flush out members of the Abu Sayyaf group in the mountains near Indanan town carried into a third day.
“Since Monday, nearly 300 families from two villages have fled their homes,” said Mohammad Nur Askalani, a military spokesman. “Some of them are staying with their relatives in urban centers, while a few are at temporary shelter areas.”
Maj. Gen. Gabriel Habacon, chief of the Southern Command, said he ordered the assault on the terrorist groups after the military traced the Abu Sayyaf in Indanan town. “The Southern Command has already designed an extensive offensive plot for the capture of these elements to prevent them from performing terrorist activities and permanently disperse them in the region. We have been planning and working for months to find and track the terrorist leadership and the time is now,” he said.
Supnet said leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) group, mostly based in Indanan, have assured the military that their forces would not provide sanctuary to the “terrorists.” The MNLF signed a peace accord with Manila in 1996 ending more than three decades of hostilities in the south.
Officials said troops were tracking down Abu Sayyaf chief Khadaffy Janjalani and two Jemaah leaders, Umar Patek and Dulmatin, blamed for the deadly 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia.
The US military is also helping in the anti-terror campaign by providing intelligence to the Philippine military. “Friends in the US military are helping the military by providing us intelligence. They are not involved in combat operation,” Supnet said.
Commander Kathy Wright, a spokesman for the US military, said American soldiers were also providing life-support system for local troops in Jolo island. “We are helping in the medical evacuation of wounded soldiers. The US military is not directly involved in any combat operation in Jolo, but we continue to assist and advice the Philippine military on the fight against terrorism on the request of the Philippine government,” she said.
