MANILA, Philippines (AP) – Philippine troops killed a rebel commander of Abu Sayyaf accused of rescue kidnappings for years and on Sunday rescued the last of his four Indonesian captives, the military said.
Marines wounded Amajan Sahidjuan in a gun on Saturday night and died after blood loss on Kalupag Island in the southernmost province of Tawi Tawi. Two other militants managed to escape and dragged the last of the four Indonesian hostages, but troops finally 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 captors from Abu Sayyaf on the outskirts of the town of South Ubian in Tawi Tawi.
The army said Abu Sayyaf militants led by Sahidjuan were fleeing the assaults in nearby Sulu province when their speedboat was whipped by huge waves and knocked down Tawi Tawi.
A military official said militants were trying to cross the maritime 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 army realized the plan and launched covert aggressions.
The officer, who has extensive 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 the rescue of Indonesian men, the last known hostages detained by Abu Sayyaf, would allow government forces to put an end to rebels seeking rescue.
“It will simply be relentless in a massive and concentrated military operation because, now, we would not worry that the victims of the kidnappings could be beaten,” Vinluan told reporters over the phone.
Vinluan said there were about 80 armed men left from Abu Sayyaf in Sulu and the outlying islands provinces. One of the remaining senior leaders, Radulan Sahiron, has fallen ill and was injured in a recent offensive in Sulu, he said.
Sahidjuan, who uses the war name Apuh Mike, has been accused of kidnapping a rescue since the early 1990s. He was reportedly part of Abu Sayyaf militants who attacked the mostly Christian southern city of Ipil in 1995, killing more than 50 people after robbing banks and shops and burning downtown. in one of his boldest forays.
Abu Sayyaf is a small but violent group that has been blacklisted separately from the Philippines and the United States as a terrorist organization for bombings, rescue kidnappings and beheadings. Some of its factions have aligned themselves with the Islamic State group.
Militants have been considerably weakened by years of military offensives, surrenders and setbacks, but remain a threat to national security. They set off a security alarm in the region in recent years after they began venturing away from their jungle camps in Sulu, a Muslim province that ravaged the nation’s largely Roman Catholic nation, and kidnapped them. to coastal cities in Malaysia and led cargo ship crews.