RP launches airstrikes on militant groups

RP launches airstrikes on militant groups

Philippine helicopter gunships and planes on Thursday attacked a
suspected meeting between leaders of the al-Qaeda affiliated Abu
Sayyaf and Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) militant groups, the military
said.

Among those suspected of being in the area attacked in the
southern Philippines were the senior leaders of the Abu Sayyaf
and a certain Dulmatin, an Indonesian alleged to have been behind
the deadly Bali bombings in 2002.

The strikes were based on intelligence reports that the Abu
Sayyaf was meeting with Indonesian members of the JI network
along with renegade members of the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF) who had broken a cease-fire with the
government to attack an army outpost.

Among the Abu Sayyaf leaders reportedly in the area were its
chief Khadaffy Janjalani and senior members Abu Soliman and
Isnilon Hapilon said Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza, military chief of
the southern island of Mindanao.

Regional military spokesman Col. Franklin Del Prado said the
targets were in a group of houses scattered in a forested, marshy
area on the outskirts of Datu Piang and Saudi Ampatuan towns.

Braganza said that among the JI members reported to be in the
area was Dulmatin, "who figured in the Bali bombing."

Del Prado said Dulmatin was accompanied by two other
Indonesians identified as Maruan and Mauyha, supposedly members
of JI regional Islamic militant network.

However the officials would not say how Dulmatin entered the
Philippines or what he and the others were doing in the country.

The Abu Sayyaf and JI members were meeting members of an MILF
faction that overran a military outpost in the southern town of
Mamasapano on Jan. 10, leaving about 21 soldiers and rebels dead,
Braganza said.

The two MILF commanders Abdul Rahman Binago and Abdul Wahid
Tundok led their men in attacking the army outpost without the
sanction of the front's leadership but the rebels have refused to
turn the two commanders over.

Braganza said MG 520 helicopter gunships and OV-10 attack
planes, backed by artillery, were used because ground forces had
difficulty entering the marshy area.

Some of the helicopters were hit by rebel machinegun fire but
returned to base safely, a military report said.

Troops were assessing the effect of the strikes, del Prado
said.

Janjalani heads the Abu Sayyaf, a Moro extremist group known
mainly for kidnapping and bombing attacks against Christians and
foreigners in the Philippines for over a decade.

It has been linked by both Washington and Manila to the al-
Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden. --AFP