500 families leave Jolo town
as 'end game' rages: report
Posted: 5:03 PM (Manila Time) | Sep.. 07, 2002
INQ7.net
AT least 500 families have been evacuated from Patikul and surrounding areas as the firefight between government troops and members of the Abu Sayyaf entered its second day, according to a report by radio dzBB.
The families, the report said, were temporarily housed in schools in Jolo and Talipao as the military intensified its air strikes on suspected bandit lairs.
Four more rebels were killed while two soldiers died from injuries sustained on Friday,
the first day of the major clash since the military announced an "end game" offensive against the rebels.
Security at exit points have been tightened, the report said, as government forces pursue the guerrillas who are believed to be holding hostage three Indonesians and four local women.
About 5,000 soldiers had earlier been deployed to track down the rebels who had seized four women Jehovah's Witnesses last month and three Indonesian tug boat crew members earlier.
The troops include those trained by Americans during a six-month US counter-terrorism exercise that ended in July.
The Indonesian hostages were among four crew members of a Singaporean-owned tugboat abducted by pirates on June 17 as their vessel was passing Jolo. The fourth escaped.
The military said the kidnappers handed their captives to Abu Sayyaf bandits after talks for their release bogged down.
Another armed gang linked to the Abu Sayyaf is holding four Filipino women, evangelists from the Jehovah's Witnesses group, who were among eight abducted on August 20. Two of these were freed and two male prisoners beheaded.
The United States has linked the Abu Sayyaf to Islamic militant Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network, blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.