A "SLUGFEST" of a fight

[Leartes]

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Philippine troops take militant camps, scores dead

By JIM GOMEZ, Associated Press Writer Jim Gomez, Associated Press Writer – 25 mins ago

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine troops overran two jungle camps of al-Qaida-linked militants in their deadliest clash in years, with 23 soldiers and 31 guerrillas killed in what a top commander described Thursday as a "slugfest."

More than 400 marines, army and police commandos stormed the hilltop camps on southern Basilan Island on Wednesday in raids targeting about 150 Abu Sayyaf militants led by two terror suspects wanted for a series of bomb attacks and kidnappings, said navy chief Vice Adm. Ferdinand Golez.

Heavy fighting ensued when a unit of marine reinforcements met up with a large group of fleeing militants, leaving them outnumbered with 18 marines killed, Golez said.

"It was a slugfest," regional military commander Maj. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino told The Associated Press by telephone.

"It was really close-quarter fighting, so we couldn't use our artillery," he said, adding troops were still pursuing small pockets of fleeing gunmen Thursday.

A total of 23 troops died and 18 were wounded, four in serious condition, Golez said.

The slain soldiers were brought to a morgue in nearby Zamboanga city, where stunned relatives waited, some quietly weeping.

The militants, who Golez said possibly included members of the main Muslim separatist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front, suffered 31 dead. Troops did not recover all the bodies because the militants dragged away some, he said.

A spokesman for the Moro rebels, Eid Kabalu, confirmed that 10 of the dead were members of the group. He said they were not with the Abu Sayyaf and only happened to be in the area when the fighting erupted.

Unlike the Abu Sayyaf, which is considered a terrorist organization, the larger Moro rebel group has been negotiating an autonomy deal for minority Muslims in the southern Philippines with the government. But sporadic clashes have erupted in recent months.

Although weakened by yearslong U.S.-backed offensives, about 400 Abu Sayyaf gunmen on Basilan and nearby Jolo Island and the Zamboanga peninsula have recently turned to ransom kidnappings to raise funds for terror attacks, officials said.

The militants held three international Red Cross workers on Jolo for several months this year, as well as a dozen Filipino hostages. All have been released or rescued.

The latest offensive targeted Abu Sayyaf chieftains Khair Mundus and Furuji Indama, said Rear Adm. Alex Pama. It was not clear if they were among the dead, but a brother of Indama, also an Abu Sayyaf commander, was killed, Dolorfino said.

U.S. and Philippine security officials have especially wanted to capture Mundus, who was arrested several years ago but escaped. He is suspected of having connections to Middle East financiers, according to police intelligence officials.

Indama is suspected of orchestrating the beheadings of 10 marines in 2007 — an attack that led an angry President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to order the military to crush the militants.

The two camps seized Wednesday served as a stronghold and a bomb factory for the Abu Sayyaf on Basilan, about 550 miles (880 kilometers) south of Manila. Troops found several bombs, booby traps and 15 assault rifles and grenade launchers, Pama said.

The Abu Sayyaf is on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations and is suspected of having received funds and training from al-Qaida.

U.S. Adm. Timothy Keating, head of the Hawaii-based U.S. Pacific Command, expressed sympathy for the families of slain Philippine troops during a previously scheduled visit to Manila on Thursday.

___

Associated Press writers Hrvoje Hranjski and Teresa Cerojano contributed to this report.

[Jerry Michael]

Here's their version of the event...

Casualties high in Philippine Marines attack on MILF in Basilan

Wednesday, 12 August 2009 23:14

Source

August 13, 2009 – Casualties were reportedly high on the Philippine Marines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) during a day-long clash between the their forces in Barangay Baguindan, Tipo-Tipo, Basilan yesterday.

Around 3am yesterday, troops of the Philippine Marines stormed an attack on suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) at Sitio Kurellem, Baranagy Ungkaya Pukan, Basilan.

However, at around 6am after attacking and engaging the ASG, the Marines diverted its offensives against MILF forces under the 114th Base Command of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) – MILF at adjacent Sitio Kapayagan, Barangay Baguindan, Tipo-Tipo, Basilan.

The attack on the MILF forces by the Marines was launched without provocations, a field report said.

Firefight escalated to Sitio Bato Mapoteh and Sitio Maluha in Baguindan with the Marines heavily pounding the areas indiscriminately with artillery fires.

Three innocent non-combatant women were killed by the artillery shelling by the Philippine Marines.

Gun battle continued until evening. Accordingly, the combat operations against the ASG and MILF were test missions for the newly trained Marine troops.

MILF suffered nine martyrs and four wounded. At one hand, the casualties on Marines were approximated at 50 men.

The casualties on the MILF were those who pursued the withdrawing Marines at Sitio Mapoteh but were unable to get out of the area as Marines reinforcement troops arrived and scoured the area.

Scores of assorted firearms that were captured by the pursuing MILF fighters from the fallen marines were recovered by the Marines reinforcement troops who cordoned the pursuing MILF fighters.

Barangay Baguindan, the area for the test mission of the Marines, is the bailiwick of MILF provincial committee chairman and some brigade commanders of the 114th Base Command BIAF - MILF.

MILF leaders in the province believed that real target of the operations of the Marines were not the ASG but the MILF forces.

The test mission attack on the MILF violated the exiting MILF – government ceasefire accord and diminished the letter and spirit of President Gloria Macapgal Arroyo’s declaration of suspension of military offensives in the conflict affected areas and MILF forces in a bid to resume the stalled peace negotiations with the MILF.

A protest on this sneaky attack against MILF forces by the Philippine Marines is up to be filed by the MILF against the government as violation of the ceasefire and act jeopardizing mutual efforts to sustain the government SOMO and MILF suspension of military actions.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 12 August 2009)

[wakkanakka]

Very sad. So many killed. many wounded. Filipino tanan.

Additional...


44 killed in Basilan war

23 soldiers, 21 Abus die in face-to-face combat
By Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao, Jocelyn Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:19:00 08/14/2009

Filed Under: Armed conflict, The Southern Campaign, Acts of terror

ZAMBOANGA CITY — The first bursts of gunfire thundered through the hills at 3:47 a.m. on Wednesday. By nightfall, the close-quarter, face-to-face combat was still raging, after Marine reinforcements fell into an ambush.

After the last shots had been fired, 23 soldiers—including two junior officers—lay dead, with 22 others wounded. At least 21 Abu Sayyaf bandits were also dead.

“It was a slugfest,” Maj. Gen. Ben Dolorfino, Western Mindanao Command chief, said of the fierce gun battle on Basilan Island.

For the Armed Forces, which ordered the offensive on the Abu Sayyaf hideout, the marathon fighting achieved a strategic objective—the capture of a hilltop Abu Sayyaf training camp that the bandits had been using to make bombs.

But the military paid a steep price: It suffered its worst loss ever in a single engagement with the Abu Sayyaf, a check with Inquirer archives showed.

Eighteen of the soldiers killed belonged to a Marine company that tried to help their beleaguered comrades but were ambushed, surviving soldiers said.

Some of the wounded soldiers said what puzzled them was that the Abu Sayyaf seemed to have known in advance the government troops’ movements, including the 8 a.m. arrival of reinforcements from the 67th Marine Raider Company.

The Army identified the two junior officers killed as First Lt. Chester Barela of the Philippine Military Academy Class 2004 and First Lt. Del John Evangelista of PMA Class 2006.

Twenty of the slain soldiers belonged to the Marines, while the rest were from the Army. Among those also killed was Army Cpl. Renato Dindin.

“I was really wondering why they knew about our movements,” Private First Class Randy Liboon said in Filipino during an interview at the hospital inside the Zamboanga regional command headquarters. “If we had lost our nerve, for sure we would all be goners.”

Liboon indicated the bandits were waiting as the soldiers crept forward.

‘Enemy was waiting’

Liboon, of the 4th Scout Ranger Company, said his company was the first to arrive in the target area: The bandits’ camp in Sitio Kurrelem in the village of Silangkom.

“We thought the enemy was only few. We were one company (about 100 soldiers) and we had complete supplies for three days. But when we arrived at the target area, the enemy was already in position. Hayun, bakbakan na agad (That’s it, there was immediate fighting),” Liboon said.

“It was face-to-face fighting, then running and chasing, until they ran into our other unit (Light Reaction Company),” Liboon said.

Two in Liboon’s group were killed—a junior officer and a radioman.

“It was the most difficult and the most exhausting gun battle I had ever encountered in my whole life,” 25-year-old Private First Class Joel Alano, a member of the elite unit Light Reaction Company, told the Inquirer.

Alano, a native of La Union, was hit by shrapnel on his back.

“All throughout the day until night, there was no letup in the fighting,” Alano said, breathing heavily as he lay on his hospital bed. “We were getting hungry and weak. Then our reinforcements were ambushed.”

“As the fighting went on, they were increasing in number. At first, they seemed like they were about 50. But before nightfall, they have grown to about 200,” Alano said.

Staff Sergeant Garry Tolentino also did not expect the fighting would last until nighttime.

“We thought the fighting would only last for a short while because we had reinforcements. As it turned out, our support was hit really hard,” Tolentino said, referring to the 67th Marine Raider Company.

Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Arnulfo Burgos Jr. estimated between 30 and 40 Abu Sayyaf men were killed in the fighting.

Barela, a member of the 4th Scout Ranger Company, and Evangelista, of the 3rd Light Reaction Company, were among the first soldiers to enter the Abu Sayyaf lair, Armed Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr. told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo.

“It was still dark when the firefight began. The two officers were equipped with night vision goggles so they were in that group who first launched the operation,” Brawner said. He said soldiers fought the Abu Sayyaf at a very close range.

The first clash initially involved 50 Abu Sayyaf bandits, he said. A bigger clash occurred two hours later at around 5:30 a.m. and lasted seven hours with at least 300 soldiers fighting 150 Abu Sayyaf bandits.

Sporadic firefighting went on until Wednesday evening in adjacent villages as the Abu Sayyaf clashed with the military’s blocking forces, Brawner said.

‘Significant victory’

The camp which the soldiers overran was where Abu Sayyaf members were being trained in bomb-making.

Dolorfino said the slain soldiers had made “their supreme sacrifice to protect our people.”

Dolorfino said the first wave of clashes involved troops from the Special Operations Command (Scout Rangers), the 61st Marine Company, Force Recon Battalion, the Special Operations Platoon 10 and the Marine Battalion Landing Team 10.

The second wave involved soldiers from the 67th Marine Raider Company, the Force Recon Battalion and the police Special Action Force.

Dolorfino claimed that government achieved a “significant victory.”

“We have also recovered a total of 21 enemy, body count, and 17 high-powered firearms,” Dolorfino told reporters in Zamboanga.

He said two Abu Sayyaf commanders, Muttong Indama and Asid Sali, were among those killed.

Rear Admiral Alexander Pama, commander of the Naval Forces Western Mindanao and chief of Task Force Trillium in charge of the offensive in Basilan, said: “We have taken their bomb manufacturing site where they assemble and make improvised explosive devices.”

Pama said the camp was also where the group brought their kidnap victims.

“This is a big blow to their capability, especially to launch bombings, because we have deprived them of improvised explosive devices,” Brawner said.

He added: “However, we are not yet certain that they will not launch other attacks later on.”

Brawner said Wednesday’s offensive “was a deliberate operation launched by the military targeting this camp, which is the heart of the Abu Sayyaf activities.”

Director Felizardo Serapio Jr., chief of the Western Mindanao Directorate for Integrated Police Operations (DIPO), said the explosive devices and bomb materials recovered from the camp had the “trademark” of suspected bomber Khair Mundos, who had escaped from a General Santos City jail.

“We presume he was there to train more bombers as indicated by the volumes of (explosives) recovered in the training camp,” Serapio said.

Eid Kabalu, Moro Islamic Liberation Front vice chair for military affairs, said 10 MILF men were among those killed in the clashes. He claimed soldiers entered an MILF territory, resulting in the encounter.

Kabalu claimed only two Abu Sayyaf men were killed in the daylong encounter, disputing the military tally.

Dolorfino said the military had prior coordination with the MILF.

No part-time Abu

“We sought the help of the MILF,” he said, adding that the MILF men reported killed “fought alongside the Abu Sayyaf.”

“We considered them Abu Sayyaf bandits. There is no such thing as part-time (Abu Sayyaf), part-time MILF,” Dolorfino said.

Military officials could not remember suffering as heavy a loss as Wednesday’s since the carnage on July 20, 2007, when 14 Marines were killed—10 of them beheaded—during a fruitless rescue operation for kidnapped Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi.

Brawner said: “We are saddened by our loss ... but it is an accepted fact that part of our duties would entail risk of being killed in action. Death is a natural consequence of such operation.” With reports from AP and Reuters

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquire...in-Basilan-war

[icon_king]

kapoya aning gubat nila...

[rig]

Kaluoy sa mga pamilya nga gibilin sa mga napatay nga soldiers.
May They REST IN PEACE.

[joshua259]

guys we should SUPPORT our military soldiers cause they are fighting for our country...

it makes me feel bad that most Filipinos don't support the AFP.

[Verst Eltone]

It makes me feels bad when I read the news...the soldiers died are the unsung heroes.

"Rest In Peace Brave Soldiers"!!!

[fingolfin]

guys we should SUPPORT our military soldiers cause they are fighting for our country...

it makes me feel bad that most Filipinos don't support the AFP.

.. the question is HOW

[personalmgt]

Mao niy resulta sa mga way lingaw na taw called MILF. Making war as an excuse for their communism.

[xboi56]

ngano ra gud nag ribelde na sila? mao ra gihapon ila gi pang unay mga filipino gihapon... kaluoy pud sa mga pamilya sa soldiers.