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By Anthony Vargas Reporter
GOVERNMENT troops have about 120
Abu Sayyaf bandits surrounded, and a “fierce” battle is
imminent, military officials said Tuesday.
In a related story, the Agence
France-Presse reported that heavily armed US Special Forces were
seen leading a Philippine military convoy Tuesday in Jolo.
The troops were part of a convoy
of Philippine Marines hunting members of the Abu Sayyaf.
More Filipino troops continued to
arrive to reinforce the 35th Infantry Battalion, but no new fighting
occurred as had been reported in the media, the officials said.
Last week, 27 soldiers and 32
bandits were killed in three days of fighting in the Sulu towns of
Maimbung, Indanan and Parang.
“There’s no development yet .
. . so far, no fighting were reported,” Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro,
the Armed Forces public information chief, told reporters in Camp
Aguinaldo.
He confirmed that more troops
have been deployed to undisclosed areas in Sulu to engage the Abu
Sayyaf bandits and rogue members of the Moro National Liberation
Front (MNLF).
“We do believe that they are in
the general vicinity [where the fighting took place last week] . . .
they remain to be intact,” Bacarro said. “The intent [of troop
deployment is] to limit their movement.”
He added that the final decision
to attack is up to the commander in Sulu and would depend on the
battle conditions.
Bacarro said the AFP is confident
of catching up with the Abu Sayyaf, because their movements are
slower since the top Abu Sayyaf commander, Doc Abu, is wounded.
“They won’t be leaving their
commander, so definitely it will have an impact on their movement.
Definitely we will use that to our advantage,” Bacarro said.
The military has deployed some
4,000 troops in Sulu over the weekend to pursue the Abu Sayyaf and
other rebels.
Military commanders say the 26
men they lost in Sulu last Thursday was the most in a single day.
On Thursday, 11 soldiers from the
33rd Infantry Battalion were killed after the Abu Sayyaf waylaid
their truck on the way to Maimbung town to buy provisions.
Later that afternoon, 15 soldiers
from the same army unit were killed after engaging a huge number of
bandits in a fierce battle in the same town. The army said 32 of the
enemy were killed.
The military had said earlier
that the two Jemaah Islamiah bomb experts were sighted during the
three-day encounter.
The two are Umar Patek, an
Indonesian bomb expert, and Dulmatin, a Malaysian engineer, who is
said to be brains behind the October 2002 Bali bombing that killed
more than 200 people.
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