Military personnel and suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) figured in two separate armed encounters in Sumisip, Basilan on Saturday, April 2, which left casualties on both sides.
Major Andrew Linao, spokesperson of the Western Mindanao Command (WestMinCom), said elements of Joint Task Force Basilan (JTF) were conducting combat operations in Barangay Sucaten around 7:30 a.m. when they encountered around nine armed men believed to be ASG fighters under the command of sub-leader Pasil Bayali.
Bayali's group has been accused of harassment among members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) in Basilan.
“The violent extremists withdrew shortly after the engagement but responding government forces caught up with them while they were fleeing which led to another armed confrontation,” Linao said in a military report.
Brig. Gen. Domingo Gobway, commander of JTF Basilan, said four of his men were wounded in the encounters while there were “undetermined number of casualties” on the enemy side. The identities of the wounded soldiers were not revealed by the military.
The troops also seized three M16A1 rifles, magazines, three bandoleers, and 619 rounds of ammunition at the clash sites.
“Battle casualties were immediately extricated from the area and were given proper medication. They are all in stable condition as of press time,” Gobway said.
The troops were commended by Lt. Gen. Alfredo Rosario Jr., WestMinCom commander, as he urged them to continue intensifying their combat and non-combat operations to finally curb the threat of terrorism in Mindanao.
“The remaining members of the terror group who refuse to return to the fold of the law are doing desperate moves to gain popular support after they’ve lost it due to the neutralization of their top leader,” Rosario said.
Radzmil Jannatul alias “Khubayb,” an ASG sub-leader and the pinpointed successor of the late ASG commander Furuji Indama, was killed in an encounter with Army troops in Sumisip town last March 26.
Rosario urged the troops to sustain their military operations and pulverize the remaining forces of the ASG in its known strongholds in Mindanao.
Meanwhile, the WestMinCom chief assured that all four wounded soldiers will be given assistance by the military as they recuperate in the hospital.