Philippine troops kill 6 Muslim rebels in south
Source: Reuters
MANILA, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Philippine troops killed two leading members of local Muslim terror group Abu Sayyaf and four of their followers in a 30 minute firefight off its southwestern coastline on Saturday, a military spokesman said. The Philippines, battling Muslim and communist insurgencies, wants to flush out Abu Sayyaf, which has around 400 core fighters, and members of Southeast Asia's largest militant group, Jemaah Islamiah (JI), who use its remote islands as bases. Lieutenant-colonel Bartolome Bacarro told reporters that Abu Hubaida and Jundam Jamalul, who used the moniker Black Killer, were killed at around 5:30 p.m. (0930 GMT). Jundam Jamalul was on a U.S. blacklist and had a $20,000 reward on his head. "It's a firefight at sea. They were completely neutralised," Bacarro said. One M203 grenade launcher and a M16 rifle were recovered from the militants' double-engine pumpboat. The firefight comes a day after the military arrested two Abu Sayyaf members on suspicion of involvement in the kidnapping of U.S. missionaries in 2001. The pair were arrested in Zamboanga City on the southern island of Mindanao. Around 8,000 government troops are hunting the Abu Sayyaf, the Philippines' most dangerous militant group, in Mindanao, and have killed nearly 69 rebels since the start of the campaign on Aug. 1. Last month, the military said it may have killed Abu Sayyaf's chief, Khaddafy Janjalani, but DNA tests have to be conducted before the claim can be verified. According to Filipino intelligence sources, the Abu Sayyaf has seen its leadership cut off from the rank-and-file, some of whom have begun to surrender quietly rather than face life on the run through unforgiving jungle. But authorities also acknowledge that the remaining leaders and their Indonesian allies from JI have highly tuned survival skills and remain a key threat, particularly in the south, which has been scarred by decades of conflict. Earlier this week, police said Abu Sayyaf and JI were likely behind a bomb blast at a fast-food restaurant that wounded two people.
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