Maj. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the latest hostilities erupted at the boundary of Guindulungan and Talayan towns in Maguindanao, where Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadafy Janjalani and his men have been holding out for more than a year now.
Dema-ala said an Army lieutenant and two of his enlisted subordinates were wounded in the firefight.
Preceding last Friday’s encounter were several brief skirmishes between advancing combatants of the 6th ID and Janjalani’s group, scattered in strategic spots in the towns of Guindulungan, North Upi and Datu Odin Sinsuat.
Dema-ala said Janjalani’s group has split into smaller bands, now moving from one area to another to elude the soldiers pursuing them.
The 6th ID’s hunt for Janjalani and his men started two weeks ago.
Local officials said they are convinced that the manhunt could also be a joint Philippine-US war exercise due to the involvement of Caucasian-looking men in the operation.
Sources in Maguindanao’s Islamic community said fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) nearly shot down a Huey helicopter ferrying troops to Guindulungan when it hovered above a known MILF enclave without prior coordination.
"The incident was precipitated by the military’s uncoordinated flight over an area covered by the ceasefire," said Thong Kanakan, head of the MILF’s Ad Hoc Joint Action Group, which helps monitor the presence of criminals and lawless elements in rebel strongholds.
Officials of the 6th ID declined to comment on reports that two of the helicopter’s crew members were wounded in the incident.
Dema-ala refuted the MILF’s claim, saying those who fired at the helicopter were disgruntled Moro guerrillas coddling Janjalani’s group and suspected members of the Indonesian terror group, the Jemaah Islamiyah.