[ad_1]
In this undated file photo, Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya is seen in the foreground on the right, with his gang of armed extremists. Philippine troops killed a rebel Abu Sayyaf commander blamed for years of ransom kidnappings and rescued the last of his four Indonesian captives, the army said.
Image Credit: AP
Manila: Philippine troops killed a rebel Abu Sayyaf commander credited with years of ransom kidnappings and rescued the last of his four Indonesian captives on Sunday, the army said.
Marines wounded Amajan Sahidjuan in a shootout on Saturday night and then he died of blood loss on Kalupag Island in the southernmost province of Tawi Tawi. Two other militants managed to flee and dragged the last of the four Indonesian hostages, but troops finally rescued him on Sunday, said the regional military commander, Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan Jr.
On Thursday night, three Indonesian men were rescued by the police who also captured one of their captors from Abu Sayyaf along the shores of the town of South Ubian in Tawi Tawi.
The army said Abu Sayyaf militants led by Sahidjuan were fleeing the assaults in nearby Sulu province when their speedboat was hit by huge waves and capsized in front of Tawi Tawi.
A military official said the militants were trying to cross the maritime border to Tambisan Island in Malaysia’s neighboring Sabah state to free the captives in exchange for a ransom of at least five million pesos ($ 104,000), but the Philippine military he learned of the plan and launched covert assaults.
The officer, who has deep knowledge of the operations against Abu Sayyaf, spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity due to the lack of authority to speak publicly.
Vinluan said the rescue of the Indonesian men, the last known hostages held by Abu Sayyaf, would allow government forces to take down rebels seeking ransom.
“It will be relentless in a massive and focused military operation because, now, we would not worry about kidnapping victims being beaten,” Vinluan told reporters by phone.
Vinluan said about 80 gunmen from Abu Sayyaf remained in Sulu and the outlying island provinces. One of its remaining elderly leaders, Radulan Sahiron, became ill and injured in a recent offensive in Sulu, it said.
Sahidjuan, who goes by the nom de guerre Apuh Mike, has been accused of conducting ransom kidnappings since the early 1990s. He was reportedly among the Abu Sayyaf militants who attacked the mostly Christian southern city of Ipil. , in 1995, where they killed more than 50 people after robbing banks and shops and burning down the city center in one of their most audacious raids.
Abu Sayyaf is a small but violent group that has been separately blacklisted by the Philippines and the United States as a terrorist organization for bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings. Some of its factions have aligned itself with the Islamic State group.
The militants have been considerably weakened by years of military offensives, surrenders and setbacks in battles, but they remain a threat to national security. They set off a security alarm in the region in recent years after they began venturing away from their jungle camps in Sulu, a poverty-ravaged Muslim province in the largely Roman Catholic nation, and carried out kidnappings in Malaysian coastal cities. and cargo ship crews.
