{"id":6708,"date":"2014-04-11T14:22:49","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T06:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=6708"},"modified":"2014-04-11T14:29:17","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T06:29:17","slug":"18-soldiers-wounded-in-ongoing-clash-with-abu-sayyaf-extremists-in-southern-philippines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/04\/11\/18-soldiers-wounded-in-ongoing-clash-with-abu-sayyaf-extremists-in-southern-philippines\/","title":{"rendered":"18 soldiers wounded in ongoing clash with Abu Sayyaf extremists in southern Philippines"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MANILA, Philippines\u2014The military launched a strike on Abu Sayyaf extremists in the southern Philippines early Friday and ongoing clashes have left at least 18 soldiers wounded, officials said.<\/p>\n

Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala said 200 troops were deployed before dawn to flush out some 20 militants led by Puruji Indama, a commander of the militant Muslim group, from a village in Basilan island’s Unkaya Pukan township.<\/p>\n

The extremists later occupied school buildings in nearby Tipo-tipo township, said Brig. Gen. Carlito Galvez, an army brigade commander in the area. The school is empty because students are on summer break.<\/p>\n

Galvez said the military operation was intended to seize Indama and his group, who have threatened and tried to extort money from a road construction project in the province.<\/p>\n

Indama has been wanted by Philippine authorities for his alleged involvement in deadly bombings and kidnappings, including of a former Australian soldier freed last year after 15 months of jungle captivity and payment of ransom. He also has been blamed for the 2007 beheadings of 10 marines in Basilan, a widely condemned atrocity.<\/p>\n

Zagala said he had no immediate information on Abu Sayyaf casualties and more details may be available when the smoke of battle clears.<\/p>\n

“We’re continuing the pressure,” Zagala said.<\/p>\n

The Abu Sayyaf, which is on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations, was founded in 1991 on Basilan island with funds and training believed to come from Asian and Middle Eastern radical groups, including al-Qaida. It came to U.S. attention in 2001 when it kidnapped three Americans, one of whom was beheaded, along with dozens of Filipinos.<\/p>\n

The group is still holding about a dozen hostages in the jungles of nearby Sulu province, including two European bird watchers who were kidnapped two years ago,<\/p>\n

Zagala said Friday’s operation is unrelated to the search for suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen believed holding a 28-year-old Chinese tourist abducted last week from a Malaysian resort off Borneo island.<\/p>\n

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MANILA, Philippines\u2014The military launched a strike on Abu Sayyaf extremists in the southern Philippines early Friday and ongoing clashes have …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":6712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,95],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-6708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news-ph","tag-abu-sayyaf","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}