MANILA // Philippine troops battling militants on a popular tourist island killed a young Abu Sayyaf commander involved in beheading westerners
and who was leading the raid to capture more hostages.
Military chief of staff General Eduardo Ano said that troops recovered the remains of Moammar Askali at the scene of the battle in a village on Bohol island. Five other Abu Sayyaf gunmen, three soldiers and a policeman also were killed in Tuesday’s clashes.
The extremist gunmen quietly cruised into Bohol, far from their southern jungle hideouts, on three motorboats on Monday night.
Gen Ano said troops were still hunting at least five Abu Sayyaf gunmen, though fighting had eased on Wednesday.
It was Abu Sayyaf’s first known attempt to carry out ransom kidnappings in the central Philippines, far from the group’s jungle lairs in the southern provinces of Sulu and Basilan.
While the bold kidnapping attempt appears to have been foiled, the militants’ success in penetrating the bustling region of beach resorts and other popular attractions will spread fear among tourists and businessmen.
Askali, who used the nom de guerre Abu Rami, was involved in the kidnappings and beheadings of two Canadians last year and a German hostage earlier this year after ransom deadlines lapsed, Gen Ano said.
He was an emerging hard-line leader of Abu Sayyaf and had pledged allegiance to ISIL. He had received bomb-making training from Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, or Marwan, a South East Asia militant leader who was killed in 2015.
“This is a major blow to the Abu Sayyaf,” Gen Ano said. “If they have further plans to kidnap innocent people somewhere, they will now have to think twice.”
Bohol island is about an hour by boat from Cebu province, a trade and tourism centre, which has hosted some of the meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the regional bloc the Philippines is leading this year.
Gen Ano said military intelligence operatives had been trying to track the movements of Askali’s group for several days after learning of their planned abductions.
The US embassy in Manila had earlier advised Americans to take precautions amid “unsubstantiated yet credible information” of possible kidnappings by terrorists in Bohol and other central areas.
In 2001, Abu Sayyaf sailed as far as western Palawan province, where they seized 20 people, including three Americans, from a resort.
The militants are still holding at least 29 captives in Sulu’s jungles, many of them foreign tugboat and cargo ship crewmen.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered troops to destroy the extremists.
*Associated Press
