Abu Sayyaf militants flee to escape offensive

Dozens of Abu Sayyaf guerrillas have fled to Tawi-Tawi, an island province close to the border with Malaysia in an effort to escape a massive military offensive on southern Sulu island, police and military intelligence reports said yesterday.

Police said Abu Sayyaf chief Khadaffy Janjalani, Ghalib Andang and dozens of their followers have fled to Tawi-Tawi, about five hours by boat to Sabah, where they were reportedly recruiting more members to their fold.

Remnants of Janjalani's group in Sulu have also been reported to be buying weapons from unnamed politicians and gun syndicates in Sulu, where security forces continue to hunt down guerrillas tagged as behind the kidnapping this year of three Indonesian tugboat crewmembers and four Filipino women.

The Abu Sayyaf kidnapped 21 mostly European and Asian holidaymakers from Sabah's Sipadan resort in 2000 and freed most of them after Libya and Malaysia reportedly paid $25 million as ransom.

"We received similar reports," the commander of the Marines General Librado Ladia told a television interview yesterday as he referred to information concerning massive recruitment by the Abu Sayyaf.

Police did not say when the rebels fled to Tawi-Tawi, but an intelligence report said the group wanted to set up a training base in the province.

Guerrillas are known to operate on Sulu and Basilan islands, but hundreds of them were killed by security forces during the last two years.

Other reports from Sulu said some rebel leaders fled to Sabah and Indonesia in September, taking with them part of the ransom money they had amassed in previous kidnap-for-ransom operations.

The rebels were also reportedly trying to tie up with Al Qaida and Jemaah Islamiya terror groups in Indonesia.

Southern command chief Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya said last week that the Philippines is coordinating with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to fight terrorism.

"We have been closely coordinating with Asean member countries. We have a security agreement with them and there is an exchange of intelligence information among Asean members. We have a common stand and that is to fight terrorism," Abaya noted.

The United States and the Philippines have linked the Abu Sayyaf to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaida network, although both have to come up with solid evidence to bolster their claims.

The group has been blamed for a series of terrorism and kidnappings of mostly wealthy traders and foreigners.

The United States has included the Abu Sayyaf on its list of foreign terrorist organisations and has blamed it for the deaths of U.S. hostages Guillermo Sobero and Martin Burnham in southern Philippines last year.