Three top rebels wounded in Philippines hostage
island
MANILA, Sept 28 (AFP) - Three
Abu Sayyaf guerrilla leaders have been wounded and one of them may have since died in a
Philippine military operation to rescue 17 hostages including an American and three
Malaysians, officials said Thursday.
"We are sure that Radulan
Sahiron has been wounded," Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado said, citing
intelligence reports that he had since died of his wounds inflicted last week.
However, the southern
Philippines military command "are refusing to declare him dead unless they see his
corpse," he said over radio station DWIZ.
"We also have information
that Commander Robot has been wounded," armed forces spokesman Brigadier-General
Generoso Senga said over DZMM radio, referring to Abu Sayyaf leader Galib Andang.
He said the nature and
seriousness of his injuries have yet to be determined. The military operation is now on
its 13th day in the southern island of Jolo.
A third guerrilla leader, Mujib
Susukan, has wounds on his arm and leg, the provincial governor, Abdusakur Tan, told DZMM.
He said he obtained the report
from civilians who have seen the fleeing rebels.
Sahiron, Andang and Susukan are
among the five leaders of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist guerrillas who provoked a five
month-old hostage crisis with a cross-border kidnapping raid of 21 western tourists and
Asian resort staff in the Sipadan resort in Malaysia in April.
All but one have since been
freed, but the rebels later took new hostages.
Andang and Susukan's factions
jointly hold 12 Filipino Christian preachers in central Jolo while Sahiron's group holds a
Filipino who was among the original Sipadan hostages.
A third faction holds US
captive Jeffrey Schilling in eastern Jolo while a fourth Abu Sayyaf group holds three
Malaysians, seized across the border less than three weeks ago.
Schilling made a telephone call
to the US embassy here on Monday to relay his captors' 10 million-dollar ransom demand, a
senior aide to President Joseph Estrada said late Wednesday. The embassy had confirmed the
call but would not give details.
Senga said 111 guerrillas have
been killed and 49 others captured in the operation so far.
Government casualties have ben
put as two soldiers and three civilian informers dead and 11 soldiers, policemen and
informers wounded.
While the campaign has little
to show except for the escape of two French hostages from Andang's custody last week,
Mercado said Thursday that "firefights are becoming more frequent, indicating that
their (Abu Sayyaf's) room for maneuver is getting smaller."
A relief officer for the
southwestern Philippines, Felicito Arevalo, said the fighting has displaced at least
62,900 people, or more than 12 percent of the population of the entire Jolo group of
islands.
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