MANILA, Philippines (AP) – Philippine troops have killed a rebel commander Abu Sayyaf accused of years of ransom abductions and on Sunday rescued the last of his four Indonesian captives, the army said.
The sailors wounded Amajan Sahidjuan in a gun battle on Saturday night and later died of blood loss on Kalupag Island in the southernmost province of Tawi Tawi. Two other militants managed to escape and dragged the last four Indonesian hostages, but troops rescued him on Sunday, said the regional military commander, Lieutenant General Corleto Vinluan Jr.
On Thursday night, three Indonesian men were rescued by police, who also captured one of their abductors Abu Sayyaf along the coast of South Ubian in Tawi Tawi.
The military said Sahidjuan-led Abu Sayyaf militants were fleeing attacks in nearby Sulu province when their motorboat was hit by huge waves and capsized Tawi Tawi.
A military official said militants were trying to cross the border into Tambisan Island in Malaysia’s neighboring state of Sabah to free the captives in exchange for a ransom of at least five million pesos ($ 104,000), but the Philippine military got the plan and launched covert attacks.
The officer, who has a deep knowledge of anti-Abu Sayyaf operations, spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity due to lack of authority to speak publicly.
Vinluan said rescuing Indonesian men, Abu Sayyaf’s last known hostages, would allow government forces to put an end to the rebels seeking redemption.
“He will be tireless in a massive and concentrated military operation, because now we would not worry that the victims of the abduction will be hit,” Vinluan told reporters by phone.
Vinluan said that about 80 armed men of Abu Sayyaf remained in Sulu and the peripheral island provinces. One of their remaining senior leaders, Radulan Sahiron, fell ill and was injured in a recent offensive in Sulu, he said.
Sahidjuan, who uses the war name Apuh Mike, has been accused of carrying out ransom kidnappings since the early 1990s. He is said to have been among Abu Sayyaf’s militants who attacked the largely Christian city of Ipil in 1995, killing more than 50 people after robbing banks and shops and burning downtown in one of the most daring raids. theirs.
Abu Sayyaf is a small but violent group that has been blacklisted by the Philippines and the United States as a terrorist organization for bombings, kidnappings and beheadings. Some of his factions have aligned themselves with the Islamic State group.
Militants have been considerably weakened by years of military offensives, surrender and fighting, but remain a threat to national security. They have sounded a security alarm in the region in recent years after venturing away from their jungle camp in Sulu, a Muslim province ravaged by poverty in the Roman Catholic nation, and organizing kidnappings in Malaysian coastal cities. and targeted cargo ship crews.