The Philippine government commended troops and civilian informants yesterday for helping in the capture of a senior Muslim guerrilla commander, and vowed to crush any remaining Abu Sayyaf rebels.
Galib Andang, also known as Commander Robot, the leader of a faction of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf extremist group, was wounded in both legs during a gunfight with soldiers on Sunday in Indanan town on southern Jolo island, said Brigadier-General Gabriel Habacon, head of the military's task force charged with hunting the guerrillas.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Civilian informants tipped off soldiers on the whereabouts of Andang, who is suspected in a series of ransom kidnappings, including the abduction of Western tourists from a Malaysian resort three years ago, Habacon said.
Other Abu Sayyaf guerrillas with Andang escaped during the gunfight, he added.
Andang's wounds were believed to be serious, but Habacon said he wasn't sure if his legs would need to be amputated. TV footage showed the wounded suspect being carried away on a stretcher by soldiers. He was conscious and at times smiled.
Military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Lucero said Andang will be brought to the hospital inside the main army camp in suburban Quezon City, where Armed Forces chief General Narciso Abaya was scheduled to present him to the media later yesterday.
"The capture of Commander Robot is another heavy blow to the Abu Sayyaf, which has been heavily decimated by military operations," President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in a statement. She said the group was "weary and on the run."
"The [military] is determined to finish the job against the Abu Sayyaf even as we pursue a second front against the clandestine cells of [Jemaah Islamiyah]," Arroyo said, adding the government will keep up the pressure "until all terrorists are accounted for."
The government has warned that the Abu Sayyaf group, notorious for kidnappings and beheading hostages, was cooperating with the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah, which according to officials has about two dozens operatives in the southern Philippines.
Andang is suspected of involvement in the April 2000 kidnapping of 21 people, about half of them Western tourists, from the Malaysian resort of Sipadan. The hostages were released after months in captivity, reportedly in exchange for millions of dollars in ransom paid by Libya.
A year later, the rebels kidnapped three Americans and 17 Filipinos.
One of the Americans was beheaded and another died during a military operation that led to the rescue of the third.
The kidnapping spree prompted the US to send more than 1,000 soldiers for a counterterrorism exercise that helped Filipino troops dislodge the group from Basilan island.
The Philippine military estimates there are about 250-500 guerrillas on Jolo, down from about 800 in 2001.
National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force chief Angelo Reyes said the government was open to have Andang stand trial in any country that may seek his extradition, but that he would first be tried in the Philippines, where he faces charges punishable by death.
Faced with a surge in ransom kidnappings, Arroyo last week lifted a moratorium on executions of people convicted of serious crimes.
She clarified over the weekend the executions will apply only to convicted kidnappers and drug lords.
SUPPORT: Elon Musk’s backing for the far-right AfD is also an implicit rebuke of center-right Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz, who is leading polls German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a swipe at Elon Musk over his political judgement, escalating a spat between the German government and the world’s richest person. Scholz, speaking to reporters in Berlin on Friday, was asked about a post Musk made on his X platform earlier the same day asserting that only the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “can save Germany.” “We have freedom of speech, and that also applies to multi-billionaires,” Scholz said alongside Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “But freedom of speech also means that you can say things that are not right and do not contain
Pulled from the mud as an infant after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and reunited with his parents following an emotional court battle, the boy once known as “Baby 81” is now a 20-year-old dreaming of higher education. Jayarasa Abilash’s story symbolized that of the families torn apart by one of the worst natural calamities in modern history, but it also offered hope. More than 35,000 people in Sri Lanka were killed, with others missing. The two-month-old was washed away by the tsunami in eastern Sri Lanka and found some distance from home by rescuers. At the hospital, he was
‘DECREE 147’: Tech giants operating in Vietnam must verify accounts via phone numbers or IDs, and must provide users’ personal data to authorities on request New Vietnamese Internet rules requiring Facebook and TikTok to verify user identities and hand over data to authorities came into force yesterday, in what critics say is the latest attack on freedom of expression. Under “Decree 147,” all tech giants operating in Vietnam must verify users’ accounts via their phone numbers or Vietnamese identification numbers and store that information alongside their full name and date of birth. They must provide that data to authorities on request and remove any content that the government regards as “illegal” within 24 hours. All social media sites had been given 90 days to provide data on “the
Two US Navy pilots were shot down yesterday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the US military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of US targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Both pilots were recovered alive after ejecting from their stricken aircraft, with one sustaining minor injuries. However, the shootdown underlines just how dangerous the Red Sea corridor has become over the ongoing attacks on shipping by the Iranian-backed Houthis despite US and European military coalitions patrolling the area. The US military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the
RSS