Abu Sayyaf training camp found

MANILA, Philippines - Government troops chanced upon a suspected training camp of the Abu Sayyaf while pursuing extremists in Basilan, a senior Army official said yesterday.

Joint Task Force Basilan commander Col. Ricardo Visaya the troops stumbled upon the terrorists’ bomb training school in Barangay Baiwas in Sumisip.

Visaya said they received information that the Abu Sayyaf was using the site to train local extremists in manufacturing improvised explosive devices.

Visaya said the area is now being occupied by combined troops from the Army Special Forces and Scout Rangers on a mission to carry out President Aquino’s “All Out Justice” operations as well as to secure and protect civilians and the ongoing government’s developmental projects in the island province.

The “All Out Justice” operations was launched against the Abu Sayyaf and other lawless groups in Basilan in response to the ambush-slaying of 19 soldiers of the Army’s Special Forces in Al Barka town on Oct. 18 last year.

“(Abu Sayyaf leader Furuji) Indama and his group have lost most of their major camps including their IED training school. He and his group is now on the run,” Visaya said.

Visaya, however, added Indama and his group tried to divert ongoing military operations on their so-called “high grounds” lairs by attacking militiamen guarding a rubber plantation in Barangay Tumahobong, also in Sumisip last Friday.

In the fighting that ensued, three militiamen and an Abu Sayyaf bandit were killed.

Col. Ramon Yogyog, commander of the combined Scout Ranger and Special Forces in Basilan, on the other hand, belied claims by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that the presence of government troops in Barangay Baiwas has displaced hundreds of local residents.

Yogyog said the troops are not occupying the school that was burned two years ago by the Abu Sayyaf but are staying at the captured terrorists’ bomb training school to secure and protect the civilians and the government’s ongoing developmental projects in the area.

“Maybe the MILF is just making up things for the peace talks to collapse,” Yogyog said.

Yogyog reacted to the claims of the MILF that that special forces troops, backed by heavy military armaments and vehicles, have put up an outpost adjacent to a government public school in Barangay Baiwas.