Manila Government soldiers are pursuing members of a terror group who were reportedly gearing up to launch retaliatory attacks to avenge the death of six militants in clashes in the southern Philippines over the weekend, military officials said in separate radio interviews.
"Government soldiers are pursuing other members of the Abu Sayyaf Group," said Lieutenant General Benjamin Dolorfino, chief of the Philippine military's Western Mindanao Command, adding the military's "surgical, intelligence-driven operation" against the members will "continue with more results".
"We expect the Abu Sayyaf Group to retaliate [and not to retreat]. We are not complacent in dealing with the militant group. We are watching them," Philippine Navy spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Edgard Arevalo said in another radio interview.
Government soldiers have cordoned off the hideouts of the Abu Sayyaf group in Jolo and Basilan, said Arevalo, adding that security measures were undertaken to prevent the group from succeeding in retaliatory attacks.
The identities of the four members of the Abu Sayyaf group who were killed last Sunday will be revealed soon, another source told Gulf News.
Neutralised
On Sunday, Albader Parad, a young but virulent Abu Sayyaf leader involved in the kidnapping of three Red Cross volunteers in 2009, was killed in a two-hour gun battle at Karawan Village, Maimbung, Sulu.
The three Red Cross workers Mary Jean Lacaba, Andreas Notter and Eugenio Vagnim were released after they were abducted while on a humanitarian mission in Jolo in January 2009. During the hostage crisis, the military erroneously reported that Parad was killed in a clash.
Parad was believed to have led the gang that kidnapped broadcast journalist Ces Drilon and two of her crew members in June 2008. He was also among those who seized 21 tourists from a dive resort in Sipadan island in Malaysia in April 2000.
Also killed in the Sulu encounter were Abdulhan Jumdail, alleged cousin of Umbra Jumdail, a core Abu Sayyaf leader, said Dolorfino.
Three soldiers were wounded in Sunday's clash.
