ZAMBOANGA: Twelve people were killed in the Philippines yesterday as troops clashed with a militant group blamed for the country’s deadliest terror attacks, the military said.
The fighting left seven Filipino marines dead and nine others wounded on the remote southern island of Jolo, military spokesmen said.
Five members of the Abu Sayyaf group were also killed in the firefight, military spokesman Brigadier-General Domingo Tutaan said in Manila.
“It was an early-morning firefight. Our forces were tracking those responsible for some recent kidnappings in the area, including the wife of a soldier,” Tutaan added.
The social worker wife of a marine had been freed unharmed by the Abu Sayyaf on nearby Basilan island two days after her abduction, he said.
The wounded marines were airlifted to a military hospital in the southern port of Zamboanga, Tutaan said, adding none of their injuries was life-threatening.
Colonel Jose Cenabre, commander of a marine brigade in the area, said a marine reconnaissance team under him was involved in the firefight.
“The close-quarter combat resulted casualties on both sides,” he told reporters by telephone.
Founded using seed money from Al Qaeda in the 1990s, the Abu Sayyaf is blamed for the worst terror attacks in the country, including the firebombing of a ferry in Manila Bay and kidnappings of foreign tourists.
AFP
