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6 killed, 22 hurt in Basilan ambush

Suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits ambushed a convoy of rubber plantation workers escorted by government militiamen in Sumisip town, Basilan province yesterday, killing six persons and wounding 22 others.
Army 1st Infantry Division (ID) spokesman Capt. Albert Caber said a four-vehicle convoy of workers of Tumajubong Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Integrated Develop-ment Council (TARBIDC) was traversing along the Circumferential Road in Barangay Sapah Bulak around 6 a.m. when it was attacked.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, although the military pointed to the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf. Caber said more or less 10 Abu Sayyaf terrorists staged the ambush.
Killed were Dante Binondo, Larry Mangaran Sr., Bonifacio Estequia, Albert Parang and Loreto Jeneney Jr., all rubber tappers of TARBIDC, and an unidentified member of the Special Cafgu Active Auxiliary (SCAA) of TARBIDC.
Twenty other civilians and two SCAA members were wounded during the attack.
The military tagged the group of Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Radzmil Janatol as responsible in the attack. Janatol’s group was also encountered by members of the TARBIDC-SCAA last Tuesday along the vicinities of Sitio Campo Dos, Barangay Tumajubong.
Caber said the SCAA members managed to return fire at the Abu Sayyaf bandits, forcing them to retreat in different directions.
Army 104th Brigade commander Col. Arthur Ang immediately deployed additional troops in the area to pursue the Abu Sayyaf band.
Elements of the 17th Special Forces Company and 20th SFC were conducting the hot pursuit operations.
Ang, however, stressed the Army troops will continue to secure vital government installations in Basilan, particularly the Circumferential Road which is scheduled to be completed within the year, while tracking down the attackers.
Army spokesman Maj. Harold Cabunoc noted that the ambush was the second attack against the workers of  TARBIDC this year, raising belief that the refusal of the plantation to yield to the extortion activities of the Abu Sayyaf.
“This is the second time this year that lawless elements attacked the workers of the rubber plantation. It is believed that the refusal of the rubber planters to pay extortion money to the lawless elements was the motive of the crime,” Cabunoc said.
Taha Katu, the cooperative’s manager, said prior to the attack they had received extortion letters purportedly from the Abu Sayyaf demanding payment of over $1,000 a month, in exchange for not being harmed.
Late last year, Abu Sayyaf gunmen also killed five workers in a similar ambush near the area.
Basilan is a rugged, jungle-clad island in the southern Philippines. It is a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf and farm workers commonly travel with armed escorts.
The Abu Sayyaf is a small Islamic militant movement that has been blamed for most of the country’s worst terror attacks as well as the kidnapping of foreigners.
Mario J. Mallari, Gina P. Elorde and AFP

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