MANILA,
Philippines (AP) — Philippine troops killed at least 11 Abu Sayyaf
militants, including an influential commander, in an assault on the
extremists Friday following their beheading of a captive whose family
was too poor to pay ransom, the military said.
Regional military commander Maj. Filemon Tan said 17 soldiers were
wounded when hundreds of army troops surrounded a vast jungle area in
Sulu province's mountainous Patikul town and clashed with scattered
groups of about 100 militants.
Among the 11 dead militants was Amah Maas, a longtime commander of
the group who had severed arms and had been implicated in ransom
kidnappings, including of European tourists.
President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the troops to destroy the militants
in their jungle bases after the extremists on Wednesday beheaded a
Filipino teenager, Patrick James Aldovar, who was abducted near a police
camp in Sulu's main Jolo town last month.
"The order of the president is to search and destroy the Abu Sayyaf
so that's what we are doing," Tan said, adding more than 1,200 troops,
including special forces commandos, were involved in the assaults in
Patikul and other Sulu hinterlands.
Thousands of reinforcement troops have been flown by C130 cargo
planes to Sulu and nearby Basilan island to help in the ongoing
offensive. Many of the troops were freed up from other combat zones in
the country after Duterte declared an indefinite ceasefire last week
with communist rebels, who are engaged in peace talks with the
government brokered by Norway.
The Abu Sayyaf has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by
the U.S. and the Philippines for deadly bombings, kidnappings and
beheadings. Without any known foreign funding, the extremists have
relied on ransom kidnappings, extortion and other acts of banditry and
some commanders have pledged loyalty to the Islamic State group partly
in the hope of obtaining funds.
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