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| Southeast Asia | |
| Three Extremist Gunmen Killed in Philippines Military Clash | |
| 2015-08-29 | |
| [ALMANAR.LB] Three gunnies were killed after the Philippine military on Friday launched a second attempt in two weeks to rescue hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... terrorist group, the army said. About 300 Abu Sayyaf gunnies retreated after the hour-long firefight in the jungles of the remote southern island of Jolo, said Brigadier-General Alan Arrojado, the military commander in the area. However the military did not say if any of the hostages were freed or injured in the festivities, or how many hostage were believed to have been held at the murderous Moslems' camp. Ten Philippine soldiers were maimed in the fighting, Arrojado added. Last week two Philippine coasties men, who were among 11 hostages held by Abu Sayyaf, escaped during fierce festivities which erupted after elite military forces launched a risky rescue operation, leaving 15 Abu Sayyaf men dead on Jolo. The military rescue attempt came after the decapitated remains of a 12th hostage, Rodolfo Boligao, were found on a deserted Jolo highway. Impoverished Jolo is a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, a loose band of several hundred gunnies set up in the 1990s with seed money from the Al-Qaeda terrorist network of the late Osama bin Laden ... who doesn't live anywhere anymore... The group engages in kidnappings to finance operations, often targeting foreigners and sometimes beheading captives if ransoms are not paid.
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| Posted by:Fred |