Security forces have stepped up the hunt for Abu Sayyaf members in the southern Philippines, following a raid on two terrorist hideouts in Zamboanga City, officials said on Saturday. Soldiers and policemen stormed an ice plant in Rio Hondo, a village, which is notorious for criminals and drug gangs, and seized 300 pieces of blasting caps and C-4 type of explosives on Thursday. The second raid in Baliwasan village yielded electronic timers, but the two places were apparently abandoned by terrorists before the raiding team had arrived, said Army Colonel Edgardo Gidaya, commander of an anti-terror task force here. "These explosives belong to the Abu Sayyaf. We have information about that and there is an ongoing operation against the terrorist group," he said, adding, civilian informants were providing them intelligence report about the Abu Sayyaf. Gidaya said most of the blasting caps were made in India. It was not immediately known how the explosives were smuggled into the southern Philippines, but the country's coastline is twice the length of that of the United States and is extremely difficult to monitor. Authorities believed that more Abu Sayyaf explosives were hidden in Zamboanga City and that the terrorists were planning an attack on civilian targets. "The Abu Sayyaf is up to something deadly and we are trying to prevent this from happening. We are appealing to citizens to help us by providing authorities with information about suspected terrorists, or suspicious persons and even abandoned packages in public areas. We need the cooperation of the public," Gidaya said.
On Tuesday, troops also killed a key Abu Sayyaf bomber and his father in a firefight in the outskirts of Zamboanga City. Troops gunned down Amilhamja Ajijul and his father, Andalul, after soldiers raided their hideout in the remote Curuan district, about 48 km northeast of Zamboanga City. Four other men were also arrested by the raiders. Ajijul headed the Abu Sayyaf's urban terrorist group and was blamed in the killing of a US soldier participating in a joint military drill in a bomb attack on a roadside eatery in Malagutay village in Zamboanga City in 2002, and the bombings of Shop-O-Rama and Shopper's Central department stores here that left dozens of civilians dead and wounded. His group was also implicated in the twin bombings in downtown Zamboanga City last year that injured 26 people. The military also implicated Ajijul in the kidnapping of US citizen Jeffrey Craig Schilling in Jolo island and dozens of Filipinos in Basilan in 2000.
Just this week, an Abu Sayyaf bomber was killed after tinkering with an explosive he planted on a road to attack patrolling troops in Maimbung town in Jolo island. The powerful blast mangled the man's body.