AFP blocking Basilan to prevent ASG from escaping

By Ronron
August 20, 2007

To prevent the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) from escaping Basilan following Saturday’s fierce fighting, naval blockades have been set up by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) around the island province, the military officer spearheading the operations said Monday.

“They might be withdrawing by sea so we have naval assets blocking them, conducting blockade,” Brig. Gen. Juancho Sabban, deputy commander of the AFP Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) and commander of the Task Force Thunder, said in a phone interview with Camp Aguinaldo reporters yesterday.

“I cannot say 100 percent that they can’t escape but we are trying our best,” he added.

Sabban said the military is watching for 40 to 50 ASG rebels that survived the clash last Saturday in Ungkaya Pukan town where 15 Marine soldiers and 42 rebels died.

“We believe they are in one vicinity. Of course, they will no longer move together. They have scattered in small groups, but they are within the vicinity of each other,” Sabban said.

Sabban said no firefight has so far occurred since Saturday’s incident, although there was mortar shelling conducted last Sunday morning “to soften the defense of the enemy.”

But he said that while there is still a lull in the fighting, the search for the probable escape route of the rebels is continuing.

Sabban expressed confidence that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will not mix up with the ASG although there are adjacent MILF camps in the encounter site.

“We were able to forewarn them. If they join, we consider them as allies of the Abu Sayyaf,” Sabban said of the MILF fighters in the area.

The AFP has around 5,000 troops in Basilan province, mostly assisting policemen in the service of arrest warrants for suspected beheaders of Marine soldiers last July 10 in Al-Barka town.

AFP chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. has ordered the troops in the province to finish off the ASG now that they have already been located in last Saturday’s incident./DMS