THE Abu Sayyaf Group beheaded an Army soldier days following his abduction by a group of bandits in Brgy. Lagasan, Patikul, Sulu. In Bohol, the ASG suffered three more casualties during clashes with the government forces who were pursuing an ASG team out on a kidnapping mission.
Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana Commander of Joint Task Force Sulu said the body of Sgt. Anni Siraji was found at 3 p.m. Sunday somewhere in Brgy. Taglibi, Patikul, just a few kilometers from where he was taken.
Sobejana said the decapitated head was about 50 meters away from Siraji’s body, which was already in a state of decomposition, suggesting that the beheading was done three days ago.
He said that the beheading of Siraji was hastily done as the bandits were being hunted after they clashed with the Army’s 32nd Infantry Battalion in Taglibi village on March 3, during President Rodrigo Duterte’s visit to Sulu.
Siraji was a former member of the Moro National Liberation Front who was integrated into the Army in 1996.
He was seized by seven armed men about 9:30 a.m. Thursday along the highway heading towards Brgy Lagasan, Patikul.
Sobejana said Siraji’s body was at the morgue of the Busbus Hospital and will be brought to his family by a navy vessel.
“In our assessment the beheading was done three days ago, hastily done because of our continuous operations. They beheaded [him] and then they fled; they attempted to bring the head, but they eventually left it some 50 meters from the slope,” Sobejana said.
The military condemned the beheading of Siraji, who they described as a law-abiding and decent man helping the peace efforts of the government in Mindanao.
“We condemn the barbaric act by the Abu Sayyaf against Siraji. They are both Tausugs, but still, they have beheaded their fellow Tausug,” Sobejana said.
Three more ASG men were killed on Bohol island as government forces pursued remnants of a team that had aimed to conduct kidnappings in the area, authorities said Sunday.
The government said the dead suspects were stragglers from a boatload of Mindanao-based Abu Sayyaf gunmen who sailed to the central island of Bohol early this month as part of a plot to kidnap tourists.
The raid had signaled an escalation of the kidnapping threat from the Abu Sayyaf, who are based on remote islands and also blamed for beheadings and deadly bombings.
“Terrorism has no place in the Visayas [central] region,” said a joint military and police statement announcing the death of the suspected kidnappers in Bohol on Saturday.
Six other Abu Sayyaf members had been killed in earlier clashes on the island on April 11, when three soldiers and a policeman were also slain, the authorities said.
The military said they had been pursuing up to seven of the remaining gunmen.
Three suspects were still on the run after the latest clashes, they said.
Duterte on Sunday said he has ordered the military to kill the remaining terrorists in Bohol.
“I want them dead. ‘Don’t bring them back to me alive,” Duterte said.
Abu Sayyaf members led by Muaamar Askali alias Abu Rami slipped into Bohol, through Inabanga town on April 11.
Joint police and military teams killed Askali and five other Abu Sayyaf members during clashes the same day.
Four more Abu Sayyaf members, including Bohol native Joselito Melloria, were killed by the military in clashes in Clarin town on Saturday.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines said three more Abu Sayyaf members are being hunted down by its troops in Clarin.
Bohol Gov. Edgardo Chatto said Sunday that the military has sealed off Inabanga and Clarin towns as troops continue to pursue the remaining Abu Sayyaf intruders.
Also on Sunday, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said military intelligence units would intensify operations against terrorists and their sympathizers.
“In fulfillment of President Rodrigo Duterte’s efforts to address that concern, the Armed Forces of the Philippines [AFP] has been directed to intensify its intelligence gathering activities on ISIS inspired groups and their supporters not only within our borders but also beyond,” said Lorenzana.
Lorenzana said the Abu Sayyaf has not established bases in Central Philippines.
“They do not have bases in the Visayas,” he said said in a text message. “The only reason they came to Bohol is because one of their cohorts, Joselito Melloria, a Muslim convert and resident of Inabanga, Bohol was supposed to be their guide in their plan to kidnap tourists. But their movement was tracked by the military intelligence.”
Melloria, also a member of the IS-linked terror group Ansar Khalifa Philippines who had converted to Islam, and joined the ASG in infiltrating Inabanga, Bohol, police and military officials said. With John Paolo Bencito, PNA and AFP