AFP pounds Abu Sayyaf with artillery; 2 dead

MANILA, Philippines - Army troops pounded Abu Sayyaf jungle lairs in Patikul, Sulu with artillery yesterday, killing at least two of the bandits.

Col. Alan Arrojado, commander of the Joint Task Group Sulu (JTGS), said the bombardment by heavy artillery was in support of the daylong search and destroy operations launched by the Army’s 501st Brigade on the Abu Sayyaf enclave in Barangays Tanunm and Sandah, both in Patikul.

Arrojado said that after an artillery barrage, troops from the 35th Infantry Battalion reinforced the 1st Scout Ranger Company in capturing the militant camps, where all the bandits wounded during heavy fighting earlier were reportedly being treated.

“The captured camp served as a harboring and consolidation of the Abu Sayyaf group under sub-commander Hatid Sawadjaan,” Arrojado said.

Government forces were pursuing Sawadjaan and his men who survived the bombardment.

Combined government troops encountered Sawadjaan’s men and other armed groups during an operation that led to the rescue of two Coast Guard personnel whom the Abu Sayyaf snatched in Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte last May.

Arrojado said two Abu Sayyaf members, identified as Emmar Jamhari and Naser Muhammad, were killed while their cohort, a certain Ammel Madjid, was wounded during the bombardment.