Manila: Ongoing clashes on an island in the Philippines have cost the lives of at least 40 combatants, mostly Abu Sayyaf, officials said on Tuesday.
The chief of the armed forces’ public affairs office, Marine Col. Edgard Arevalo, said the number of fatalities in the clashes in Sulu had already reached 40 as fighting spread out to different areas of the southern Philippine island as the military stepped up the hunt for the militants.
Of the fatalities, 25 are from the Abu Sayyaf while 15 are from the military.
President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to “destroy” the Abu Sayyaf following the recent execution of an 18-year-old student who was abducted earlier.
The student was beheaded despite an appeal from his parents, who were too poor to pay up the P1 million (Dh79,166) ransom demanded by the Abu Sayyaf.
At the orders of Duterte, the military flew in more soldiers to the island.
According to Arevalo, the clash on Monday broke out at around 1.30pm, when government soldiers encountered an estimated 30 Abu Sayyaf gunmen believed to be led by Jamir Jawong Jauhiri in the village of Bakung in Patikul.
Jauhiri was among the fatalities in the 30 minute firefight.
At around 3.40pm, another clash took place, this time in Kutong village in Talipao. Some 80 Abu Sayyaf gunmen engaged the military resulting in the death of two members of the rebel group.
At around 4.30pm on the same day, a force consisting of an estimated 120 Abu Sayyaf set up and ambush in the village of Maligay in Patikul. In this particular clash, government forces sustain heavy casualties as the bandits were firing from a position of advantage.
“Fifteen government soldiers, led by a young lieutenant, as well as more than a dozen from the army, were killed in this engagement,” Arevalo said.
Reacting to the events on August 29, Armed Forces Chief Gen Ricardo Visaya said that despite the losses, the military would continue with its offensive against the Abu Sayyaf.
“Fifteen soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice while twelve others were wounded … As we gaze at the national flag that flies at half-mast anew, soldiers new that one too many hero among them has again offered his life — that others may live … We in the AFP vow to pursue this battle to conclusion,” he said.
Visaya said the military will exert all efforts to prevent the militants group from escaping from the government operations in Sulu.
“We have all the time. Keep the pressure on the enemy until they wear out. Just ensure they won’t be able to leave the island and we will be triumphant in the end,” said Visaya.
The government’s anti-terror Task Force Comet had been putting pressure on the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu as well as the group’s other island stronghold in Basilan to finish off the bandit group that has been waging a campaign of terror for more than two decades.
The terror group is still holding in the mountains of Sulu Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, one of three foreigners and a Filipina abducted in September 21, 2015 in the resort island of Samal in Davao del Norte.
Two of the foreigners, both Canadians, have already been executed while a third kidnap victim, Filipina Marites Flor, was released last month.
The Abu Sayyaf is still holding on to Sekkingstad respite an admission by Duterte, that a P50 million ransom had already been paid in exchange for the Norwegian’s freedom.